Understanding
by AxJfan
Summary: SPOILERS for 145! Caught between misery and anger, Yusei must move forward. Death is certain in this approaching war, but he has no choice but to face it. Struggling with himself has never been so difficult, or so literal. What are Zone's true intentions?
1. Prologue: Hope

**Well, as I said in the description:**

**SPOILERS TO 145 + ahead!**

**This will be a piece similar to Mistakes (for those who have read that) as in I will be posting a chapter before each new episode, so I won't know what's happening other than Janime descriptions. Basically, it's my take on what I think will happen, or more accurately, what I'd like to happen.**

**It won't be very long, or if there are several chapters, it is likely they will be split up in this size... but it's me, famous for looooooong chapters, so we'll see. **

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Yugioh 5ds.  
**

* * *

**Hope**

**Arc Cradle**

**Third Person's POV  
**

What still remained drummed against his swelling heart in the wasteland of his victory, flooding him with that last glimpse he would share in that elusive world of speed. Darkness caved into the lure and power of white light, and the final scream of a dying friend carried him back into the twisted version of reality that was the Arc Cradle. Whether the numbness gripping his body or sudden change in gravity was to blame, he felt his D-Wheel hitch below him.

Soaring through the air, he entertained the brief thought of a similar duel in the past, before he came crashing to the floor, rolling unorthodoxly on the smooth surface. Bones and skin protested to the violent greeting, and his stomach flinched as if expecting another shard of metal to rent space there.

Though roughed up, the pain went unnoticed. It was something else entirely that set the deep lines in his brow and the bitter clench in his jaw. Everything about and within him ached, all parts demanding too much attention in the all-consuming misery that wracked him. Slowly, his palms kissed the floor and lifted him upwards.

He wore the mask once again.

There was nothing left to say as he looked out into the Planetary Gear's space, no black holes or meteor showers, no dying stars, and no distant ghosts of a doomed future to call out to. The only color left in such a dark, gray setting was the dull crimson on his D-Wheel. Seeking life, he took a step forward, but fell short.

There, beside the cold metal of the machine they had rebuilt together, lay another splash of brightness. Yet the warm orange tint in that visor hit him with a wave of blue so powerful, even the mask he had spent his Satellite-ridden life constructing couldn't survive. The visage of the man who had worn them plagued him, smashed into him, contorted him, and he felt every muscle in his body tense against any fleeting wish of composure he held.

Closing his eyes against the pain of losing a friend to such a senseless means, every fiber of his being trembled and clenched; leaving no room for hollow anger in sorrow's wake. The muscles in his face screwed up, his throat shrunk and burned like rubber set alight, and his unseen eyes stung with the weight of clinging to what he did not have.

A tear fell with his name from his lips.

_"Bruno!"_

* * *

**Planetary Particle**

**Third Person's POV (continued)  
**

"Zone!"

From his vantage point, the man inside the machine gazed down stoically. An unsettling nerve twisted in Yusei's gut that had nothing to do with Bruno's death at such a sight. Bizarrely mixed nostalgia, irony, and recognition prevented him from progressing any further, so he pressed on with the words he owed to the fallen. "We've shut down the 3 Planetary Particle Gears in spite of the challenges you've given us."

Though he had no physical way of knowing this, a blind faith in his friends and a warm assurance from his mark gave him validation. "Your intent may be pure, but your means are cruel and manipulative! You used Bruno with the knowledge that he would have to betray his friends and that he could die as a result! Sherry as well—did you tell her you could revive her parents? If you could truly raise the dead then you wouldn't be here in this timeline! Your mission is based on deceit and false hope and I will stop you here!"

"Antimony."

Pulse fluctuating in betrayal, he muttered, "What?"

"His name was Antimony and he died long before your duel with him." The words were frigid as they brushed across his cheeks, leaving him unnerved at the impartial remark about someone who was supposedly Zone's close friend. Mouth falling open and closed in an uncharacteristic display of rage, the man continued, "You know nothing yet, Yusei."

"Nothing?" he challenged with a shaking, but raised, fist. "I know enough. I know that whether or not he was just a memory, _Bruno_ was—is my friend, and that is a bond will transcend your lies, just as he did in the end! I know that your future came to be, and that you believe destroying Neo Domino will remedy that! I know I can't stand by and let you do that—the ends do not justify those means! I know that I will stop you!"

With the anaphora over, both fell victim to stony silence, peering into the other's soul with intensity alarming and familiar. Skin crawling, Yusei was the first to break it. Although he had been knocked off-balance by the way Zone sat atop a pile of junk like a throne in a way that had once been common to his days before the war, it was something else entirely that recaptured his attention, the echoing sound of heavy feet bounding through the empty room.

Had his friends caught up?

As he turned, he felt feelings flee from his heart, chased away by the Ghost that refused to stop haunting him. "Zone!"

Vaguely, Yusei wondered how many times he could be shocked witless before his heart gave out on him. "Aporia? But—I—?"

The mammoth of a specimen spared him a curious glance, pausing in his approach to size the duelist up. Yusei's hands came up defensively, inching towards his duel disk for the fight about to come. Seeing this creature tower over him on a D-Wheel had been one thing, something he could fight in the least, but now standing under his immense height and glowing eyes, Yusei knew he stood no chance if the robot simply decided to swipe at him with a clawed hand. Yet he didn't make a move, just stared at him.

Red and blue eyes stayed locked on each other, one in almost faint curiosity and the other in venom.

"So," Aporia began, tilting his head towards one of the three paths that opened to the center gear. That inhuman gaze sliced back to the young man and almost seemed to grin to himself. "Is this the face of hope then, Zone?"

Before Yusei could so much as raise an eyebrow to the comment, Aporia had shifted his attention to the friend he had vowed to protect and activated his duel disk. The last survivor said nothing, though the silence spoke volumes between the two as it often did between age old friends. Without the dead weight of words to spare, he activated his own duel disk and drew five cards.

Aporia's smile grew and squashed the question bursting on Yusei's lips. "I should have known you expected this, my old friend."

Sapphire eyes darted between the two of them, at a loss now that his target had been stolen from him. Unaccustomed to sitting on the sidelines and blown away that it was the man who had tried to kill him nearly two hours ago that had a change of heart, he could do little more than stare in open-mouthed shock. Wildly, a distracted thought danced across his hectic mind, wondering, _Did Sherry mean I would die of shock?_

Then, catching himself, his face twisted into a horrible imitation of normalcy as Zone finally decided to speak to his General. "If memory serves," Zone replied gently, the only infliction in his voice heard tonight, "the Signers changed many hearts before their deaths. It was plausible that they would reach yours as well."

A laugh darted into the open, warm and far more human that Yusei would have given the machine credit for. "Is that it, my friend?"

"Why are you doing this?" Yusei demanded suddenly, reviving at the eerie comfort of a laugh and the distant chill of death. "I thought you were allies."

The fondness in his eyes when Aporia addressed him raised the nausea of confusion once more, the entire situation digging under his skin like frozen nails. "Yusei, you will understand through this duel." Sensing the discomfort from the young man he had tried to kill just seemed to make the smile brighter, and the laughter was softer. "You will know hope soon enough."

"Hope?" he echoed, floored once more. Knowingly, Aporia returned his attention to Zone, who had not moved from atop his junk throne. "Your friends seem to look to you for that, but you have very little to spare for yourself. Watch this duel, and perhaps I can lend you what Zone has given me."

_What he's…?_ Yusei frowned.

"My old friend, my savior, the God of Destiny… Zone! Let us duel for an end, let us be consumed by hope!"

_"Duel!"_

The accustomed standoff between the two combatants did not last long, however, as Fate was feeling especially creative in the bleak echoes of this tragedy. "Yusei!"

All three men turned in unison, each frustrated in a different way about the intrusion. However, it was both difficult and ill advised to ignore Jack Atlas when he called for you. The din from the Planetary Particle's Core had drowned the approaching engine out, but the white D-Wheel blazed into existence with little heed for its stealth. Rua and Ruca clung to each arm of the Wheel of Fortune on their boards as Jack braked hard, taking in the unusual sight with a hint of confusion. "Aporia? But we defeated you!"

As the man opened his mouth to answer the question burning in the back of Yusei's throat, he was interrupted once more by three new arrivals.

"Jack! Yusei! Rua! Ruca!"

Aki, Crow, and Sherry entered with the calls, each dismounting quickly to check up on the others. The Signers stopped at the sight of Yusei on the sidelines of a death-match between friends, but Sherry strode ahead until she was right before Yusei, who tensed considerable, the threat she had made lingering over his head.

Their mistrusting eyes met and lingered, broken when Sherry lurched forward in a quick bow and remained so. "What I said and acted on were unforgivable, and I will not blame a man I know nothing about for them."

Emerald irises cut upwards to glare into their sapphire counterparts, and she continued, half threateningly, half righteously, "No man can make up my mind for me. I chose to believe what was obviously a lie, and I have spat on my parent's memory because of it. If I am going to kill you"—Aki made a noise of protest—"then it will be on my own terms. Not the lies of a false prophet."

The situation and stage for such an apology were inappropriate at best, but the brute power the woman held in her gaze was enough to force him to set it aside. Palm outwards, he held out a hand to her, recoiling internally at the fact that this hand had already failed tonight. She eyed it like a snake ready to bite, somehow sensing the uncertainty in his offering.

"Sherry," he had her attention now, although whether the fact was good was debatable, "I want you on our team."

Tense atmosphere evaporating entirely with the soft jab, she covered something like grateful sorrow with a wry smirk. Their hands met in a firm shake and separated quickly, as if they lingered their skin would burn through the gloves. In unison, the pair turned back towards the duel, Yusei suffocating the impulse to apologize for the interruption—a habit instilled by Martha. His foster mother's smeared Aporia's satisfied face: thick brown strands and worn, dark eyes. Sparing a wishful thought for her and the kids' safety, he hardened his resolve and fisted his loose hands. For them, for his friends, for Neo Domino, and for Bruno's sacrifice—all these things left to lose or were already lost.

"I will show you all then!" Aporia shouted, the smile fading into the harsh lines of his face, swinging a clawed hand towards the confused gaggle of duelists. Tenderly, the hand retreated to his chest and cupped around his heart, the nails trailing along his jumpsuit idly. "I will not show you the despair that trapped me, but the hope Zone has given me—the hope you Signers have shown me!"

"The hope that we…?" Ruca repeated, glancing at the heart burned onto Rua's arm in recognition. She brought her hands across her small chest in prayer, offering her brother a smile. "Rua."

Sheepish confusion lit up his features, and, turning towards the silent Yusei, he felt the need to ask, "So you'll defeat Zone for us?"

The underlying being: _So Yusei won't die in the end?_

Two eyebrows narrowed, dangerously close to touching. All power dripped down into a menacing tone, as if the suggestion was clear ludicrously and insulting. "Make no mistake. I believe in Zone as much as you believe in Yusei."—the lingering of red eyes made the addressed uncomfortable again, it was as if the man was dropping ambiguous hints for him, preparing him for something—"I will not win this duel, of that I have no doubt."

"Then why…?" Rua gasped as Crow and Aki shared a disbelieving look.

"There is something he needs me to understand," Yusei answered, trouble gracing his face in place of his usual stoic façade. The appearance sent his friends widening eyes and parting lips, but one glance in his iron eyes settled them down, recognizing that look from the previous war they had won. It was Aki who first remembered when he had adopted that look and the circumstances behind it, although the others were not far behind her in their conclusions, she was the only one to voice such a dangerous notion.

"Yusei…" Aki spoke, gently and quietly as if afraid of scaring him off. "Where is Dark Glass?"

He turned away.

* * *

**End Notes**

Did anyone else fight back tears when Yusei cried? I was sniffling in my dorm...

So, the usual questions:

**1) Anything you don't understand (although most things will be explained as times goes on)?**

**2) Believable?**

**3) Am I the only one who actually wants Yusei to die?**

Thanks for reading as always!

**AxJfan  
**


	2. For

**Well, as I said in the description:**

**SPOILERS TO 145 + ahead!**

**This will be a piece similar to Mistakes (for those who have read that) as in I will be posting a chapter before each new episode, so I won't know what's happening other than Janime descriptions. Basically, it's my take on what I think will happen, or more accurately, what I'd like to happen.**

**It won't be very long, or if there are several chapters, it is likely they will be split up in this size... but it's me, famous for looooooong chapters, so we'll see. **

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Yugioh 5ds.  
**

* * *

**Chapter 1: For**

**Third Person's POV**

_"Now we can't get out of this place…"_

He should have known.

That orange visor weighed down more than just his jacket pocket.

He should have known that Dark Glass would be his opponent the moment they entered that empty room, he should have known someone with a connection to Zone was from the future and would fight against him, he should have known Bruno well enough to stop this, he should have known his friends would show up, he should have known they would ask this, but…

There was so much he should have known, but couldn't, wouldn't, refused to. Denial was the only cold comfort he could cling to in such desperate times, but that had left him with the heat of Bruno's parting smile and the warmth of the tear that hand lines his unmarked cheek.

Aporia and Zone waited with slight impatience for his answer, lest their duel be interrupted once more because of the Signers, who had fallen virtually silent when they realized that one of their group was missing. Aki opened and closed her mouth a few times, coming to a quick decision and one that anyone who owed their life to the missing man would, "Yusei… he didn't make it did he? Did he… did he…?"

"Sacrifice himself in the duel?" Ruca finished, turning towards her brother who had nearly done the same and grabbing hold of his hand. He returned the pressure uncertainly, staring at the way his idol's shoulders tensed past their limit.

The silence that followed held all the wrong answers, and the younger members jumped on them rather than believe what they all suspected in their hearts. "He was fighting for what he believed in, Yusei, and we should carry on and defeat Zone for his sake as well," Aki offered uncertainly, knowing the task of consoling him was delicate and wishing she had more experience.

It was the wrong thing to say. In the millisecond it took Yusei's wounded mind to decide whether to withdraw or bite back, Sherry stepped between them, planting a gloved hand firmly on his crimson D-Wheel. The abrupt movement caught them all off guard, along with the curt tone in her words, "Don't be so naïve."

She opened her mouth to continue, but Yusei's hand on her shoulder and quick shake of her head cut off the rant with a flash of dignified anger. Slipping his grip away, he took a deep breath and answered, "Br—Dark Glass, Antinomy, was my opponent."

_He betrayed me._

The only true gasp of surprise came from Rua, and the others nodded in a sad sort of sympathy, Sherry adding, "A man who can defeat the Ghosts showing up in tandem with them? Unlikely."

Hesitant nods were shared, but Aki was unsatisfied and stepped forward, fingering the green and gold necklace on her chest as she always did when passionately nervous. Her heels scuffled uncertainly as she moved, but she forced herself to look their leader hard in the eye, telling herself that she had been through the Arcadia Movement, Dark Signers, and the Ghost invasion. She could handle whatever the truth was to her answer, or whatever lie Yusei's silence would tell them with grace. "Then why did he save Ruca, Yusei, and I on the Bi-frost Bridge?"

"He was not our enemy," he continued, earning a few curious glances. The deep browns, greens, grays, and gold drilled into his armor like termites, hollowing him from the inside and leaving a flimsy shell left for show. Finally, it burst from him as if he could hold it no longer, "Dark Glass' name is Antinomy, and Antinomy's identity is… was… Bruno."

_I killed him._

The words would remain unsaid, but would have been challenged once shock released them regardless had Zone not countered, "His identity was never Bruno for that matter. He was always Antinomy."

"You made a fool of him!" Yusei bit out before he could stop himself. Now that the truth was out there, now that he had said it aloud to himself, stopped separating the three: Dark Glass, his teacher who had shown him how to surpass his limits and had saved him from Ghost and his own fears; Antinomy, who was an enemy whose only desire was to protect Zone and see him burn in a black hole; Bruno, his trusted friend and ally, the only one who understood him when he vented about machines, and the man who had connected with him upon sight, as if they had met each other in a past life… or their future one, it would seem. "He protected you and you only caused him pain! You stole his memories from him so he could befriend us, and then you had him throw it away for a future he wouldn't live to see!"

He wasn't aware that he had crossed the room until he felt a pair of strong hands on his arms. The grip was easily recognizable as Jack's, and it took all the grit he had left in his quaking body not to throw him off as he had done to Crow once already. Instead he stewed in the mixture of odd satisfaction and shame that came with lashing out, but refused to show it to the man his eyes were locked on.

Heat and ice blossomed from different stares on the back of his neck, and from each he could discern Aki's quiet, "Yusei…" and Sherry's little impressed chuckle, as if thinking it was about time. Then he felt two small hands in his right, and a new grip on his shoulder, but even the physical support of his friends could not stop the sting in humanity's last survivor's rebuttal.

"You're wrong, Yusei," Aporia offered before his friend could, but deferred to the man as if he could offer the best explanation. Thoroughly ignored by Yusei, Aporia felt a strange fear when Jack's harsh glare made to silence him and wondered if Yusei had protected Antinomy with that same possessive passion.

"Antinomy made his own choice when I returned his memories to him, and he made it before I borrowed them. Just as you made your own choice to put your feelings for your friend to the side to fight for Neo Domino, he fought for our future."

"That's not fair!" Rua announced almost immediately, dropping the hand he and his sister shared to step forward, Marked arm crossing his chest. "These are Life-and-Death duels—if Yusei stopped he would have di—"

Horror dawned on his face like a hazy morning sun through the fog. "You—you thought Yusei would…?"

I _thought I would for a moment too, Rua. But Zone underestimated my will to live, my selfish drive to abandon a friend, no matter what form they may come in. Hadn't he known this had happened once already, in a different war, with a different man?_

Dark orbs eyed the leather-covered appendage that the twins had vacated. Crossing into purple flames and ravenous shadows, he stretched out his muscles past their limits, barely feeling the strain under the terrified golden eyes staring at him in psychotic bewilderment. Those eyes had closed and looked away before being engulfed in the flames, but Bruno's had..._  
_

It was another truth he could not tell them, just like the visor in his pocket, so he said, "It doesn't matter what Zone intended to happen in that duel. It's his tactics that are dirty."

_I nearly _did_ die in there, in the black hole with Bruno._

"A-ah… I guess," Rua mumbled, staring at the man atop the garbage in mute confusion. They could all speculate there was more to the story than that, but any more attempts at conversation were cut short under Aporia's timely impatience.

"Does the use of tactics ever matter in the end result of a war?" Aporia growled, drawing his first card and glancing at it when they failed to answer his question. Gaze drifting towards the young duelist who stood surrounded under the reach of his arm, he added, "I hope they shall, or my sacrifice for you will mean nothing."

As he expected, the blue eyes twisted from anger to surprise, before being swallowed by a very brief glimmer of grief, which drained down to a mixture of confusion and indifference: a perfect hurricane in motion, leaving only the eye to look at and the wonder went it would move on. All the while, his tense posture remained upright, revealing nothing of the turmoil churning just beyond what he liked to show the world, the armor he wore for others and to protect what was steadily bleeding in him, what would ultimately destroy him and any hope the world had left.

It was time to change that.

"I summon Wisel Core!"

* * *

**Aporia's POV**

I watched for any signs of recognition in the slits of his helmet, which he wore to conceal not only his face, but also the deep scars that had claimed the left half. It was a difficult task across the dueling field, and one that only Antinomy, the first and best of us, had ever truly accomplished on a daily basis. His closest companion, his brother, and the one to fuel his failing flames. It had come to no surprise to me, in any form, to see Antinomy by Yusei's side showing him the Accel Synchro, but it had stung to know I was just a messenger bearing the curse of the monster that killed more than just the Synchro, and he was the savior and traitor to mankind.

Placido had lashed out in anger, as I had when I lost my first love to the machines in the future. Jose had looked on indifferently, understanding his place by the last human's side. Luciano had simply enjoyed the change of pace, had grown excited that our plan was coming together.

So I'd let this be a message to both Zone and Yusei, who would piece things together with that quick, dangerous mind. These fabrications of the Machine Emperors, the warning to all the humans who had only a decade left on their beloved planet, they were an admonition of my own. Zone realized it right away, having crafted the message in those machines with his own two hands, but Yusei would take some convincing, so stuck in-between the past and the future.

The duel was difficult, but it enthralled me, captivated all three parts of my soul: the child who had lost his parents, the man who lost his love, and the elder who had lost the world. This man was my savior, my light in the darkness, and to wage war against him, to try and save him by any means possible, to attempt to understand the vast complexities that lie behind those haunted sapphire eyes…

If I had a heart, it surely would burst from my chest. As it was, my memories spat out the limited sense of happiness I had experienced in my long life and enhanced it, took the large grains of humility and exaggerated them, and sent anger burning hot and scorching, burning a path for Yusei to follow in. For them: for their future: for their past: for the last shred of humanity they had left buried under their shadows and lies; this duel was for them: for Zone, for Yusei, for the Signers, for humanity.

"Watch this duel, Yusei! Watch it and understand!"

Understand that you've been wrong from the moment you boarded Arc Cradle, from the second you tangled with Z-One and Sherry LeBlanc, from the moment you balked at the entrance to the Speed World. Understand that you are so much more than what you'd have others see, that you are an enigma that should not approach but be approached, and that you are the most dangerous out of all gathered here.

Understand your power over us Yusei. Understand your gift for this world.

_Dear God above, you absolute moron, understand _yourself_,_ Placido snapped, red eyes narrowing in irritation.

_Understand your place in your bonds,_ Jose suggested calmly.

_Hehehehe! If you don't, we're all screwed! _Luciano imparted with his usual grin.

And so I turned as Zone began to counteract me, drawing his intricate and unbeatable strategies that had saved us all from death countless times before. His ace was coming soon, and I knew my end would be swift and painless under those capable hands. So it was time I took my own advice and spoke clearly.

"Will you save him, Yusei, or will you continue to pretend you don't have that power?"

* * *

**Third Person POV**

It was the second time someone had asked him to save Zone, and as his own clouded mind tried to make sense of why he was the only one who could do it, he couldn't keep himself from falling into the hole as if he had never left it.

Absolute darkness.

Once, he had endured the foolish belief that he knew what darkness was, and that he had experienced the worst of it with his first step into the Underworld. The atmosphere had been dense to the point of physical discomfort, and the gravity nearly brutal enough to keep him on his scarred stomach. What passed for ground had swirled aimlessly around his uncertain feet, and the lowlight stung his unadjusted eyes.

He was such a fool.

This was darkness, this was despair and hopelessness, not a pit in Momentum his father had rescued him from. Everywhere the eye stretched, desperate for companionship, nothingness greeted it, not even the color black as the hole was named after. Greedy, its mouth swallowed him, engulfing his world in a blanket of despair—or at least trying to. But so long as he wasn't alone, he would survive.

"Are you alright, Antinomy?"

Though he could not feel or see anything but the vibration of his D-Wheel and the red shade from his opponent, the urge to connect and repair still hammered on relentlessly in his frightened ribcage. The question was stupid in itself, answered by the first thought he had: _Now we can't get out of this place._

The man turned, but instead of saying so, he did what was least expected and most desired. A soft smile and gentle eyes were all that was needed to bring Bruno back from Antinomy's hard features, and the bucking organ held captive in his chest seized at such a sight, bringing surprise to his face.

_Bruno, his friend… he had just killed his friend._

"Yusei," he murmured, though he may as well have shouted with the effect a name had on him. There was no condescension or praise, just a simple greeting he had offered each morning before they went to work on a new engine or exchanged theories and strategies. "You've shown me… your… potential."

His tone did not change, staying soft and warm in the recesses of heat and eternity, but his strength was fading all the same. Yusei could say nothing to console or refute him, just gazed in delayed horror and shock about what was happening in front of him.

"Yusei, save this world! Save this world, and save Zone!"

_Was this all... all this sacrifice... for Zone?_

* * *

**Sometimes, I just want to pet Yusei... poor guy.**

So, I'm still keeping it moderately short, although that's just because I refuse to write Aporia vs Zone duels when I have no knowledge of Zone's deck outside of his ace. :/

So everything's still clear and IC? Looking forward to these next episodes!

Thanks for reading!  
~AxJfan


	3. Love

**Well, as I said in the description:**

**SPOILERS TO 145 + ahead!**

**This will be a piece similar to Mistakes (for those who have read that) as in I will be posting a chapter before each new episode, so I won't know what's happening other than Janime descriptions. Basically, it's my take on what I think will happen, or more accurately, what I'd like to happen.**

**It won't be very long, or if there are several chapters, it is likely they will be split up in this size... but it's me, famous for looooooong chapters, so we'll see. **

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Yugioh 5ds.  
**

* * *

**Chapter 2: Love**

**Planetary Particle**

**Yusei's POV**

"Hope, was it?"

There was something amiss in this entire chaotic, self-serving, sacrificial act playing out before me. Aporia's change of heart (did memory-based machines have such?) was unsettling, but a welcome one, and although it was strange for my friends to call out for him as he was assaulted in this duel, one villain turned good was not the source of the problem. Perhaps it was in the way Zone spoke, that nearly mocking tone tainting the edges of his words, undetected by the others but kept Aporia and I hanging on his every syllable.

No, not mocking, that wasn't the right word for it. It was a heavy pressure masked by the light trill of amusement, it sent the hair on my arms standing on end for reasons I couldn't (didn't want to) fathom, and it rubbed me the wrong way entirely, but did not leave me swelling in anger like Jack, but drowning in a useless sense of something so _wrong_ that I couldn't comprehend which way was up or down.

And Aporia just kept taking it.

He was terribly wounded now—Zone was ruthless in his betrayal, needing no motivation to attack a friend unlike Bruno and I.

_Did Zone distance himself enough so that his ideals were all that mattered?_

But his ideals were for his friends and for the world… for redemption and for life.

_Had Goodwin not said the same thing?_

Didn't _I_ say I would chase down Goodwin's path?

Chasing down endless circles in my mind would do nothing to help anyone, so instead I returned my focus towards Aporia, who was still lying in the stern piles of junk, struggling to stand. Somewhere in Zone's last assault on Grounel and Wisel, a part of me had shrunk away from his plight, and now what I saw left me sick and drowning in the despair he was trying to save me from.

The two Momentum guards on his shoulders had shattered, leaving the rainbow colors of my father's energy to shine randomly, electricity sparked from every artificial pore in his body, chunks had been torn out of him, and when Rua advanced in concern he waved him down with a cracked hand. "This is nothing compared to what you have given me!"

_Nothing? Can a machine even feel pain?_

It shouldn't matter—Aporia is still the memory of Zone's dear friend—he shouldn't act like he was artificial intelligence that was malfunctioning and needed to be disposed of!

_But could it be just that—a malfunction that caused his change?_

"Please stop this Aporia." Zone had not moved from his throne other than to hover ten feet above it, and his mechanical arms remained idle beside him. Without body language, all I had to rely on to read the man within was his tone, and it was not out of kindness that he suggested this. It was a threat disguised as concern, perhaps even from Zone himself.

_Would he not know how far he has fallen or is he trying to conceal his own despair—like Goodwin and his brother?_

"There is no hope for their future," he continued, dropping bombs with hardly a care for where they landed or whom they hit. "They have nothing but despair—we know that. We've lived that. Do you really wish to create more with the end of this duel?"

_Despair in its wake; does that mean you do not want to do this, Zone?_

Even in opposition, the sound of his God of Destiny's voice flooded strength into his circuits, and Aporia stood. A brief glance back at us, Team 5ds, seemed to solidify him, and the stern grin appeared on his sparking face at the dark, conflicted message my mind was crying out.

"I will fight on for hope Zone, for what they have given me and what needs to be received!"

"Aporia…" I muttered, the weight I had always carried suddenly threatening to crush me with his name. Zone paused as well, almost as if struck or remembering something unpleasant, before vowing in a growl easy to make out, "Allow me to remind you what _true_ despair feels like!"

_True… despair?

* * *

_

**Aporia's POV**

"Allow me to remind you what _true_ despair feels like!"

Behind my worried features, a smile hid. _Thank you, Zone._

I needed to feel his anger as much as he needed to release it, and if that meant I had to become a target for him and bear his cross, if only for another turn, then I would. I would catch whatever he dished out, and leave the rest for Yusei.

His ace came quickly, followed shortly by an epiphany in Yusei's eyes and fear in the others. Time Machine Deity Metaeon, an incredibly creepy card by all standards, but one that had proven itself time and time again in the wars against the Machine Emperors. There was little to nothing I could do about this ace, it could not be destroyed by monsters, magic, or trap cards, and although it returned back to him at the end phase of a turn, Zone had many tricks in his hand left to play.

No Synchros though, only Antinomy played those cards still, clinging onto his _Accel_ and _Delta_ cards as if they were sent from the Messiah himself. Zone's silent objection to them, and the fact that he had this present's demise be through them, made me wonder if that were true, if he had a hand in their creation as well…

It was a pity I had never paid attention to the game before I became an elder. Perhaps if I had, before history, past, and future were destroyed in one fell swoop, I could have known the man Zone was before destruction defined us.

Like Antinomy had.

I spared Yusei another glance.

Like Bruno had.

"Time Machine Deity Metaeon attacks Machine Emperor Grounel **(1)**," Zone announced, followed by the general stunned calls of the peanut gallery.

"What kind of effect…?" Yusei wondered, bringing me relief that he wouldn't get caught up in the sheer stupidity of the zero attack point façade. I knew there was little I could do against it, so I would continue to play my own act.

"Attack, Grounel!" Easily, my monster destroyed the weak blast Metaeon sent my way, and I bid it a bitter farewell as Zone explained the invincibility of his card to the confused members of Team 5ds. The blonde woman and Yusei seemed to be the only two keeping pace, and her green gaze on the side of his face made me uneasy. She had no history of his life ringing in her ears to stop her from realizing what was happening, and it was likely she already suspected regardless…

Zone had told her to kill Fudo Yusei for a reason.

* * *

**Yusei's POV**

Aporia only had 500 lifepoints left, and I was no closer to figuring out what he wanted me to learn. If he had wanted to warn me about Zone's ruthless brilliance on the dueling field and his Ace Monster, he had achieved that already, and it was obvious he did not have an answer to it. So why did he keep giving me meaningful glances and dropping ambiguous hints?

While turning towards Zone, I noticed Sherry's intense gaze for the first time and had to repress the urge to jump. Her guard was up, making it nearly impossible for me to guess what she was thinking, and it struck me that Aporia might have been looking at her instead—that faint sense of dread on his face would make more sense then. "Sherry?" I wondered, but she backed down, still eyeing me in the corner of his lashes.

"The conclusion of this duel will decide it," she replied vaguely, leaving us all in the dark with enough skill to outfox Aporia and Zone. Aki shifted towards me, coming between us and giving the woman a hard look, protecting me and reminding Sherry what she and Crow had done for her in their duel. The French duelist smirked and turned towards Zone, resuming her stare down with no shame.

_What has she…?_

"I summon Skiel Carrier!"

_What…?_ In the brief lapse of our attention, Aporia's face had smoothed from troubled and fragmented to sparking with determination, red eyes set firmly on his idol. Frowning a more natural expression to think with, I let myself put Sherry on the backburner to the duel before me, scraping up the haphazard strategy Aporia must have pulled with his drawn card.

_Summoning Skiel will get him nowhere in this duel—Time Machine Deity Metaeon will destroy it and deal 1500 points of damage, eliminating his life points. _

The terse silence from the man in the machine revealed his plotting as well, and I let the discomfort slide with a shift of my eyes towards Aporia's tightly clenched fists.

_Perhaps he has something to gain from destroying Skiel himself then—a card effect? If he activates it's effect, he will get to draw 1 card for every two monsters destroyed… 2 more cards… could his strategy lie in those draws?_

"Zone!" The timbre in his voice betrayed nothing of his damaged body. It was final, clinging onto the last hope his deck had left to offer, perhaps what he had been intending to show me all along. "Zone, these last turns mark the end of this duel!"

His God said nothing.

Growling out displeasure and desperation, "I will not allow you to carry on with your plans like this Zone! It is as Yusei and Team 5ds have said—your methods are dirty and they have poisoned you! You used to believe in the same hope that I do—you believed in the Signers and a new future! I don't know what's changed you, but I will make you see the truth—make your eyes see!"

Our gaze met over the battlefield in his last stand, the sacrifice he was about to make for me. "Yusei! Watch carefully!"

And so I did, for as long as I could.

Skiel Carrier went first; done in by the trap card he had set near only two turns ago, when he had still stood mostly whole and functioning. The Machine Emperor Skiel followed shortly, destroyed by its own effect in favor of more cards, as I thought. Then his entire deck went, much to the shock of my friends and the amazement of me. Aporia's gaze never strayed from mine as he discarded card after precious card, each I sensed, a gift from Zone at one point in their lives together. He had shed the Machine Emperors, the cards that had destroyed him thrice over, had obliterated the future, and had somehow 'poisoned' Zone.

It was a wonderful strategy, full of all the rough and wild feelings he held for the false idol, but a last-ditch resort by nature, and by the way Zone knowingly echoed "After Glow" once it was put into play proved it.

"That's amazing!" Rua exclaimed, always the lover of complex strategies at odd times. It seemed he had all but forgotten the threat Aporia had posed to his sister and Jack barely an hour prior, and his golden eyes shone with the hope he had filled Aporia with.

_But it won't work,_ I reasoned, seeing the glint of betrayal in crimson eyes. _Zone knows your deck, knows you only have one threat to him, and if he's as insightful as he's made out to be…_

He was.

A new God entered the dueling field the moment Aporia ended his turn with After Glow waiting patiently to be drawn next turn and deal 4000 points of damage. As explained, Time Machine Deity Metaeon was returned to his deck as soon as his turn came back around, but the Trap Gate was still wide open, and his new monster was quick to emerge, forcing the newly filled graveyard to be return to his deck.

If Aporia did not draw After Glow on his next turn, he would die.

"Yusei!"

Sweat and blood abandoned me, drawn into the carnivorous lack of life threatening to engulf us, darkness beyond death, eternity, and nothingness all wearing the same flesh. "Soon we will be stuck in the gravitational field of the Black Hole. There is no path here that can get us to the light in time. If your next card is not a tuner, your elementary particles will be destroyed, and you will disappear."

_Disappear…?_ Methodically jerking away from its alluring promises, I placed my smoldering hand on top of my deck. I had no doubt his words were true, the gaping pit promised me no sweet relief of death. Tense, unable to waste time with the fear and anticipation clawing at my throat, I shouted, "This is the last…"—not the last, I couldn't let it be—"the fifth!"

My friends who had already come so far were waiting for me—we were going to change the future together once more—and I could not fall here! Not to _Antinomy_ or _Dark Glass_ or whatever face he'll choose to wear next. For my bonds, for the world, I need this card!

_He needs to die._

I drew.

"The third tuner, Hyper Synchron!" The sensation that flooded me was not relief, but I held onto it all the same, flushing it through my veins and letting it squeeze my wildly drumming heart. Anything to pull this off, anything to stop hesitating…

"Im-Impossible!" he shouted, though there was no true disbelief in his calls. He had known this was going to happen the moment I activated my trap, perhaps even from the second he showed me Clear Mind and the Delta Accel… "You can pull off three attacks?"

Deciding demonstrating was a better answer, I declared, "Shooting Star Dragon attack Halberd Cannon! Stardust Mirage!" Blue, yellow, and red light temporarily banished the darkness into its recess in our minds, sparing no time as they launched themselves at the stronger monster.

0 attack points against 4000.

He never stood a chance. Widening his eyes under the onslaught of power, a horrified and glorified whisper left him, "This is your…"

Taking his brazen features as the sign of a defeated enemy, not as the friend who was sacrificing himself, I demanded, "This is what you taught me, the power beyond my limits!" Hoping, somewhere against all the walls of denial I had forced around myself to finish this duel, hoping that somehow, someway, he would find a way back to me… Bruno would return.

"Yusei…"

As his lifepoints plummeted with a silent shout, the glass of his visor shattering over his right eye, I realized far too late that he never had.

I wondered if Zone thought the same about Aporia.

"I draw!"

Did he know, that with the last wheeze in his gears, the last spurt of Momentum's energy… did he know Aporia thought he was saving him? Did he know that this was not betrayal—

That was it!

I didn't have to look at Aporia to know that he hadn't drawn After Glow, didn't even spare the possibility under the impressive odds and the fact that he did not actually want it. He may have fooled the others, made them think that he had decided to fight for his life as well, but we both knew he was only fighting for Zone and that he would lose intentionally if it came to that.

It was Zone that did not understand.

It was I that didn't.

"Zone!" my voice left before I could stop it, after it was already far too late. "Zone—he's not—don't!"

Aporia's scream drowned the rest of my desperate splutter, ringing far too close to the last roar Bruno had spared before falling victim to eternity…

And briefly, desperately, his hand, alight with the blue inferno of electricity, reached across the dueling field, fingers clutching at the distance between him and the man he wanted to save… the friend who he had lost…

Beautiful, glorified, crowned with such an intense glow, and graced with such a slight smile, Aporia fell, dim eyes gazing towards the future he had seized with open hands. Sacrifice in its purest form, too wonderful and alluring to look away from, too heart wrenching to process until it had already passed.

"APORIA!"

Rua was the first to dart out of the stupor and throw himself onto the collapsed duelist's massive arms. Jerked forward by the string built of despair that was hope, I stumbled after him, falling to my knees at the man's side. "Aporia!" my cry was nothing in comparison to Rua's, his eyes already swimming with tears.

"Yusei…" he began softly, the mechanisms in his throat already spinning themselves into oblivion. The electricity had finally stopped running through him, and he had moments left, leaving us finally able to approach him, to seize that outstretched hand, at the cost of what little life his memory had left. "Have you seen it Yusei? The path towards our victory? Can you save him? Or will you keep pretending that you don't have it?"

_Accel Synchro is more than light! Using it, carve your own future Yusei!_

"I don't understand why Aporia," I murmured, bringing my trembling hand under his gaze. It curled into a fist, formed by the loss of two great men in such a pointless war, and sparked the cold flames of justice back into my blue eyes. "But I know what you want—no. I know what you and Bruno gave your lives for, and I won't let that go to waste! With the power of our bonds, we will overcome Zone! With your sacrifice, we know his strategy, and with Bruno's… I have the means to end this!"

The already lax muscles in his face seemed to sigh outwards, releasing whatever fear his restless spirit housed. "I wonder…"

A clawed hand engulfed my raised arm; it was both frozen and boiling from the dying war within his circuits, alien and uncomfortable, yet as familiar as the parting smile Bruno had left. As if seeping through his skin, the touch of death tingled up my arm and spread through my chest, tumbling through my ribs and jarring sensations long since sent into hiding, or not yet awakened. A lifetime of devotion played out behind the glazing red disks that made up eyes, and for a moment they were filled with such passion, such irrevocable, glinting _joy_ that I doubted he was a machine at all—that this was the man who died at Zone's side, who begged to be of use to him, who gave his death and life to try and save the man who killed him…

"… if you had this much life in you…"

The man who floated impartial, offering no last condolences to his last standing and most faithful companion, who bathed in silent victory of one who had 'wronged' him, who had given us hope through the Accel Synchro to turn it against him, and who gazed at me with such a disdain so heavy it was almost pity.

"Why…" he whispered, the claw sliding from my arm and falling onto his deck carrier, flooding it with his last charge of energy. "… why you ever let it go…"

"Why I let it go…?" I echoed. The smile on his face was reserved for the likes of another man, or for three, for a child who found his lost family, for a man reunited with destroyed love, and for an old fool who had found his last kernel of companionship once more.

"Team… 5ds…" the fanged teeth disappeared behind hard lips. "Save… him…"

He said no more.

Rua screamed his name on repeat, clawing at his chest with the strength I didn't have left to do, instead turning towards Zone and glaring at him, wondering how many more times his friends would sacrifice themselves trying to save them before he saw it as anything but betrayal.

Before he realized he was wrong.

"Zone!" Ruca shouted. We all turned towards her in mute shock as she rushed forward, putting a firm hand on her sobbing brother's shoulder, repressing tears of her own. Tiny raised fist shaking with her words, she reversed the roles and protected her brother, shouting, "How could you do this? You killed your friend without remorse! Aporia died because of you Zone—how can you remain so unfeeling! I can never forgive—!"

_"Silence!"_

She reeled back, tears coming with her. Though his voice had not risen, it had been a shout all the same, but not one of scorn or misery or even denial. It was a proclamation, and it left no room for negotiation. He sounded every bit like the God his fallen, twisted, tools had seen him as.

Once again, unnoticed by all, Rua glanced at the tip of my D-Wheel and Zone's machine, sharing the chills travelling down the my back. There was something wrong here—something more than just a desperate man's means for an end.

"I'll defeat you Zone," I finally said when even Sherry seemed unable to recover enough to speak. Slowly, I stood, yanking up the sleeve of my jacket so he could see the Crimson Dragon's Mark that changed Aporia's mind, that, according to his friends, he had believed in at one point as well.

_When he was upside down, _a distant observant voice supplied wryly. _When his view of the world was flipped with the Arc Cradle, when he still resided in the world of Speed and Feeling, surrounded by humanity's purest wishes and desires: Clear Mind._

"For Aporia."

I pointed down at his fallen corpse, forcing the man to look at his sins.

"For Bruno."

_"The happiest days of my life were with you." _The half-shattered visor cut at me from within my pocket.

"For that future that we're reaching for."

Cards were being pressed into my hand, a dragon for each Mark we shared, encouraging words building up the strength in my lungs and limbs, sparing me from the pit of misery I had fallen in with Bruno, and the chill of death Aporia had reminded me of.

"Zone!"

The plight of our efforts, the city watching with fear so great it was tangible, the ever-crushing world I carried on my broken back…

"I'll revive that hope within you!"

* * *

**Sorry about the late chapter everyone, I had an appendix scare. So rest assured that I couldn't watch the episode! I just got to scribble down the chapter in my notebook while waiting for fun medical stuff... yay? **

**(1) Remember I decided he'd start out with Wisel? Oops...  
**

And they're starting to get longer... oh dear, I'm not sure I'm capable of keeping things short and bitter after all...

ONTO THE ACTUAL EPISODE! (I hope they explain Yusei's flying D-Wheel from the opening, it'd be nice if it were a gift from Aporia since he has a momento from Bruno as well, but it'll probably be the Crimson Dragon-I mean, it's a red flying thing, come on writers...)

So everything's still clear and IC?

Thanks for reading!  
~AxJfan


	4. In the Darkness

**Well, as I said in the description:**

**SPOILERS TO 145 + ahead!**

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Yugioh 5ds.  
**

* * *

**Interlude: In the darkness**

**Arc Cradle**

**Aporia's POV**

"Zone?"

He looked up, or at least I assumed so. Trying to see his eyes from across the room at my age was a futile attempt, but although strange, he was company all the same, a savior to this parasite-filled word of despair. Shifting across the meticulously clean floors was difficult with my cane, and it was a relief to my old bones when I settled down beside him on the worn, used bed. "What is it, Aporia?"

The only thing that betrayed his true feeling were his clever hands, wove tightly around red tinted glass. Frowning behind my wilting beard, I rested my cane against the metal bedpost and let my green eyes wander around the room, out of focus without the red contacts I had lost sometime after my lover.

There was an old, beat-up duel disk on the hard, gray end table next to his soft, blue pillows, his Synchro Monsters were still spread over the sheets, and there was a pair of mismatched sock hung on his open closet door. Random hulking pieces of equipment piled in that crammed space had begun to spill out with neglect, depending on those doors being closed and latched to stay upright. A few spare shirts and pants lined the carnage under them.

Screwdrivers and wrenches lined the gray-carpeted floor, and I thought dimly that it was a miracle he didn't wake up and stab his soles on them each morning. I sighed.

That was one thing he didn't have to worry about anymore.

"What is it Aporia?" Zone repeated, a slight edge creeping into his voice. It was the most emotion I had heard out of him in five years, and it sent a misplaced smile on my face. Affection for pain, or really just anything I could get out of him after being alone for so long, I truly had gone mad.

"I had a story to tell," I wheezed, licking my dry lips and glancing up at the ceiling. Fluorescent lighting greeted me by blinding my already faulty eyes. "Just an old man's tale for you."

It was not the first time I had approached him like this, and he had never once denied me these pleasures, perhaps because he needed me just as much as I needed him, or because he was just too polite to tell me to shut the hell up like he wanted to. Taking his silence as an invitation, I continued, "A long time ago, just after the start of this terrible mess, there was a young boy. Luciano, like many others in these hard times, was orphaned when the war started. Luckily Luciano was a gifted child, and was able to fend for himself in the world gone made. He made many friends, betrayed a few and was betrayed by few, and evaded the Machine Emperors through trickery and clever plotting all through his teenage years."

"But Luciano grew tired of losing people each day to foolish mistakes they made, and one day he left. He didn't intend to come back, I think. As we both know, it was a dark and dangerous world even a decade after the initial outbreak, and the extermination of humanity was still in full throttle. Without people, even if they were more friends than allies, he knew he would not last very long on his own. But he was young, and so very tired…"

Slinking in the shadows, he peered cautiously into the mirror clutched between his long fingers, dirt from his soiled padding smearing over the surface. Depending only on his sight was risky business and he knew it, those killers could descend from the clouds like angry gods at the blink of an eye to smite him. But the air was foul with the stench of friend flesh and rotting corpses, and the entire city was so unstable roofs and concrete crashed at random, inconvenient times, setting his skin on edge.

His eye itched from the contact he had managed to pilfer from the destroyed store a block away, and he nearly jumped when the mirror caught it. _A colored contact…?_

Wasting no time complaining in light of the fact that he had found some of his own prescription in the first place, he took a deep breath and stepped out into the alley. The machine gun he carried strapped to his back was a useless comfort to his crawling skin; he knew the weapon was little more than an annoyance to the mechanical devils storming the planet.

He knew, in a distant way, he had set out to die.

Perhaps that's why, when a Grounel tanker appeared around the corner, its scanner useless against the technology in his targeting system and gray camouflage padding, he did not duck into the open door of the building next to him.

_The day he left, two little girls had been murdered while searching for their missing brother. He had given them food and watched them die five minutes later. _

Mechanically, he reached for his gun.

_Three days before that, he watched two lovers be separated by a crueler twist of demented fate, the woman dying during the precious miracle of life, only to birth a stillborn herself and leave the man alone. Luciano found him hanging from the ceiling pipes three hours later. It was no wonder his hair had grayed at twenty-four. _

Running a gloved finger over it, he counted the ammunition. Grounel had yet to spot him.

_That left his group down to three, all mistrustful of the other. There was an entirely different reason to sleep with a gun handy when around them. He couldn't stand to stay another day not knowing whether he'd see the sun again._

His finger wrapped around the trigger, and he wondered if he could rip as many holes into this monster as it had humanity.

_He had to try._

The gun sounded like the sordid hacking of the unfortunate survivor he had put out of his misery an hour ago, chocking on his own blood. Caught off guard, Grounel's sensors went haywire, its single flowing infinity-sign eye glowing bright in the ruined atmosphere. Bullets pinged off of its orange, metal body like rain off shingles, the sound that had accompanied the dead lover's childless screams.

Its head jostled lightly against the impact, slowly rotating towards the path of his trajectory, too cold to feel any sort of pain. It was only when his vision began to blur from the steady red haze that he felt the hot moisture rolling down his cheeks.

The gun pulled in tighter, kicking and bucking against his bruising ribcage with all the anger he could pour into it, willing it to life. Still, it couldn't see him, and stood paused in the intersection where D-Wheels used to run through, children holding hands played, and lovers on nightly strolls passed.

It was only when his throat seized from misuse that he realized he was screaming. _"Face me you fucking bastard!"_

Clawing at it, he seized the green targeting system that cloaked him and ripped it from his face, gouging chunks from his skin and letting him pretend his tears were blood. Revealed, Grounel spun and faced him immediately, its laser cannon focusing on his puny weapon while his shots bounced off, useless.

_"Die, damn it! Burn in hell!"_

_Why won't you die? _The ground vibrated with the force of its charging gun in spite of the fact it hovered thirty feet in the air. Light gathered at the nozzle, promising sweet oblivion for his ever bleeding wounds.

Wordless screams poured from him now, tears, blood, and despair overwhelming whatever sense he had left in him. He was going to die. Dear Lord he was going to die.

_Dear God it was over._

Over the din of his shriek, silence fell on the world. It was charged. Blurry in his distorted vision, the arm drew back and aimed, vanishing behind the glow of Momentum that powered it, ready to end him once and for all. Dead silence echoed in its wake as it was shot, the blast obliterating any sense of direction, swallowing his world into light.

Before covering it in a canopy of dust. Gun cluttering to the ground, spent, casing spread dead at his feet, he threw up his hand over his still fading hair and bleeding scalp. Downed by a fallen chunk of debris (an awning?) he reached weakly for the shells with his free hand, stretching cramped fingers towards the horizon.

_"Y-You missed me, fucker… come at me again… die…"_

Crushed like an insect, he could do nothing, not even twist around to see the cruel beast that had stolen his swift death and left him here to suffocate and splinter.

"Stop moving you moron!"

Instantly, his struggles stopped, mouth falling open in shock. A woman, alive and in the path of death, standing between him and the demon? _"G-Get away… Grounel… round the corner…"_

Dark gray combat boots strolled into his vision, kicking his cases aside with little care for the noise they made. Patched up gray kneepads quickly followed the feet as she knelt down, and he heard scratching above him and the shifting of stone.

_"Gr-Grounel…_" he tried again, hearing her hum in either annoyance or amusement.

"I killed it, don't worry. Next patrol's not due for two hours."

Shock left him limp as she continued to work, reducing the weight methodically and practically as the minutes passed by. When he found his voice, he could only say, _"Y-You…?"_

She laughed, such a wonderful and pure, hearty caress in the wasteland, the sound of bells and birds and singing and traffic and everything that had been missing in the world tumbled from her lips, and he knew, right then and there, that not all hope was lost, and that this woman was not in despair in spite of her struggles and that maybe she could save him too…

"She dug him out in half an hour, that woman," I continued, pausing to catch my breath. Though he gave no indication of such, I could feel Zone's attention through the white mask he hid his face with. "And when she asked for his name, Luciano knew this was his chance to start again. When he looked into her gray eyes, he felt his cold heart stirring, and the tears continued to fall down his face. She didn't comment about it and he didn't feel embarrassed, and when he told her his family's name, Placido, in place of Luciano, she believed him."

"Placido, eh?" she murmured, running small hands across his bloodied head. She said nothing about his attempted suicide, and for that alone, he was grateful enough to follow her into the half-collapsed building across the street for medical supplies. "You did a number on your scalp when you tore out that cloaking system. You'll probably be bald there from now on."

Her hand ran through his thick, gray hair as she bandaged his head, smiling lightly at the awed expression in his discolored eyes. That unfamiliar look bathed her in the glow of an angel, and when he reached out to touch her soft cheek, she did not pull back, only flashed white teeth and said, "I know. I worried you weren't real either."

"What's your name?" he wondered, running his hands along her purple hair, shoulders, touching the missile launcher on her shoulder gently. A glint appeared in her expressive, lively eyes.

"While we're still living in this limbo, I don't have a name," she declared. "I'm just a human fighting for my life and the lives of others. Once we've overcome this war stronger than when we started it, that's when I'll tell you my name—when we're in a world worth living for and not one worth dying for."

"You think we'll win?" he repeated dubiously, the reality check in her naïve ideals grounding him, bringing the pain back into his head and limbs from the beating. Gaze hardening, she answered with a single nod, putting her hand over his on the weapon.

"I've taken down two of them each day on my own with this weapon and others I've found in the city's armory. Here," she added gently, reaching into the pouch strapped to her dark gray belt and pulling out two pills and a water bottle. "This will help with the pain."

"Now this young woman was persistent in her beliefs," I chuckled, wheezing away my dwindling breaths. "No matter how hard Placido tried, she refused to give up her name."

"What am I supposed to call you then?" he snapped a few fruitless days later, settling down beside her as she kept her eyes on the sky for their enemies. Absently, her small gloved hand fell on his knee and she smiled, the sight of it dazzling the fight right out of him.

"You can call me partner, Placido." Satisfied with their safety, she turned the power of her sparkling gray eyes that never changed in the light or atmosphere, tightening her warm pressure on his leg.

"So he did, that man was a sucker for her smile." Again, I paused for air, but for a different reason this time. Even in memory she had the power to steal my breath away. "They stayed like this for a long time, fighting the Machine Emperors together, just the two of them. They were a perfect team: he was headstrong and unafraid to face death, and she was intelligent and deadly accurate in everything she did. Slowly, he felt himself fall victim to a different poison in that time, the taint of her naivety, and the shine in her eyes."

"Placido, do you ever miss them?"

Placing the gun he had been polishing down, he drew his eyebrows together in confusion. She had moved much closer to him while he had zoned in on the wonderful gifts the death machine had given him, as if drawn closer by the attraction of his faraway thoughts. He blinked. "Miss who?"

She glanced away for a moment, leaning forward a little more, supporting most of her weight on her long, scarred arms. Biting her lip, she risked looking up into his contact covered eyes and crawled forward the last few feet, resting her head on his shoulder. The sudden contact sent heat billowing through his skin and racing along the track of his bones, celebrating in heady victory before her words left him cold. "Other people. Friends… family…"

Hesitating, he worked his arm around to her thin waist and sighed, looking anywhere but her steely eyes. The room that held them would be called the same color: steely and gray, but was nothing in comparison to her. It was empty, harbored only weapons for a desperate war, and she was full of passion and optimism that did not belong in this world.

He would protect her, even if it meant he had to lie. "Partner, sometimes I'll find myself thinking of what things were before… with my parents and my friends… and yes, it's true I miss them more than I can say."

Her hand traveled down his leg as she looked away, a sign that she would retreat soon if he didn't finish. Grabbing that escaping hand and holding it tightly, he continued in the light from her startled eyes, "But I would never leave you, not even if they were alive, because the moment I see your face, your eyes, your smile; hear your voice, your laugh, your shouts; you chase it all away. I can only see myself with you, Partner."

"That's not what I want you to call me, Placido," she murmured, tears spilling over her lashes as he preemptively struck uncertainty from her heart. Softening, he pulled her closer, fully intent on pressing his face into her grimy purple hair, breathing in the smell of death and sweat and something burning that was her perfume, and never letting go.

"What do you want me to call you then?"

Returning the embrace with her fingers twisting in his matted hair, she pulled herself up to his eye level, touching their noses so he could feel the tingle of her lashes against his cheeks. "Your lover."

"That was the first time they kissed, but not the last," I smiled, the old tingling of her touch still lingering on my cracked, old, lips. "They made excuses to do so: each time Wisel, Skiel, or Grounel was taken out, whenever they found food and water, whenever the other coughed or sneezed or even said 'Good morning.' Two foolish young ones in love with the weight of the world on their shoulders: It was something out of a twisted fairy tale, I suppose."

Need, fire, lightning, drowning, hysteria, and calm—they crashed into each other, tugged at hair, and traced the flexing muscles of their skin through their love born through death. Nails bit deep into dirty skin, hands grabbed so tightly bruising were left in their wake, but neither cared to notice as they focused solely on the ripping desire burning through their pounding lips.

_"I love you" _ became a sweet whisper between them, shot out of place and random, whether they were killing an Emperor or putting a human out of its misery. _"I love you so much."_

"They consumed each other," I noted with a bitter little frown. "There was no one else in the world that mattered to them anymore, not their families or friends they had lost, and not the cause they were fighting for. The killing just became an expression of their love, a '_for you_' sort of mantra now."

"We'll have a small house," she decided, lying in his arms under the cracked rooftop without a care if it should fall and crush them both. He hummed in response, tucking his chin over the top of her head as she burrowed deeper into his shoulder. "So that we'll never have to be alone again. A lake will be behind us, surrounded by oaks and sakuras and willows to hide us from the world. We'll just have a little rowboat so all we can hear is each other and the waves, not the roars of engines. And we'll have two beautiful children, a boy and a girl, with my hope and your courage—they'll overcome anything in their way."

Steady, the rise and fall of her chest against his relaxed his tense muscles, and her breath under his chin set a lazy smile on his face. "They'll have your green eyes, but we won't tell them that you wear contacts, claiming that the gods picked the finest of emeralds from the sky for them. Ryuuko and Kitai, bravery and hope, names suited for the little heroes they'll be. We'll have neighbors down the valley, and we'll go over every Tuesday to play poker, Kitai will fall in love with their daughter, and we'll watch Ryuuko torment him about it."

The ground shook with the nightly reign of terror, setting dust free from the ceiling and onto their wistful faces. They paid it no heed, so entangled in the other's arms and body and dreams, staring into warm eyes and delusional futures. "And when they grow up, they'll visit on weekends with their children, and we'll spoil them rotten with sweets and teach them how to shoot a gun."

Voice fading to a murmur, she trailed her lips across his neck, unbothered by the heady sweat. Half-lidded, they smiled, unseen but felt, and she finished, "And we'll die old together, leaving the world in each other's arms."

I had to stop. Zone's head was turned towards me now, but he said nothing as I closed my eyes and took deep, haggard breaths. It was no surprise; he rarely spoke even in the times we all still had hope left to save this world. "A foolish dream," he said finally.

I nodded, tired. "Ah, but a beautiful one."

"Aporia…"

"Now let me finish," I chided, recognizing the way he said my name. My intention was never to gain comfort from him: he had given me an unlimited amount of it simply by finding me all those years ago. So close to God-Hood, his uncertainty was harder for to sense, and I wondered if giving himself up to the World of Speed would rob him of not only his humanity, but his soul.

No, I couldn't believe that, not now. I couldn't have doubts.

"Placido and his lover," I continued, "were cursed from the moment they met, as every love in that world was. And they both knew it, but chose to cling onto the false hopes of their foolish, beautiful dream."

There it was again. That slight softening in her eyes, the tug of sweetness in her dry, chapped lips, and the way her gentle warmth overcame the cold breeze of combat. This beat of silence was theirs, floating in the afterglow of another death of a 'God.' Quiet, eternally so, but soon to be filled with the sounds of their voices, lips, and love.

He made the first move, taking a confident stride towards her as she shouldered the missile launcher. His foot never touched the ground.

A scream was startled out of him as light sliced through the air, splitting them down the middle, away from her, and he could barely stifle the thought of _stupid, stupid, stupid!_

They both knew what they sort of silence meant, he been raised on it, thrived for it, depended on it! How could they mistake such a silent reaper as a moment of devotion? Were they that lost in each other than they fell victim to the calm before the storm?

_We won't make this mistake again,_ he cursed, airborne scream echoing in his wake. Dimly, he wondered why he couldn't hear her, if she had already lurked into the shadows and assumed her assassin position before his world came crashing down.

Shoulders greeted the concrete first, fresh bruises blossoming over old ones, and he tumbled out of control. The universe became a blurred shade of gray, monotonous, dull, nothing like the sparkling in her eyes. He was dimly certain he was going to be sick if he didn't stop soon, barely registering the damage his already beat-up body endured.

The wall finally stopped him, knocking his breath out with a harsh _oof!_

Sparing himself that flicker of weakness was already far too much, so he popped up strong, gun in well-trained hands, ready to fire. The Machine probably thought they were dead, so it wouldn't expect retaliation so quickly, now just to make eye contact to assure she was ready…

The other side of the room was completely destroyed. A horrible, black scar had been left by the cannon's shot, drawn down the middle, leaving the floor wide open and gaping, sharp teeth lining a carnivorous mouth. Beyond that, piles of gray stone and shingles continued to tumble down in a mammoth pile, dust trickling down it like a waterfall.

Where was she? Had she jumped over the scar already?

Tracing the ground for signs of her crouched position, probably already giving him that little _took you long enough_ smirk, he finally saw her. Or what was left of her.

At first, all he could think was _damn, without her weapon we'll have to retreat._

The thought that she had been attached to the smoldering heap of twisted metal didn't quite present itself, and it took another glance at the pile of ashes, dust, and debris to send it hurtling forward.

No.

The word couldn't even make it past his throat, leaving his lips to form it soundlessly. The launcher still bled white-hot residue, indifferent to his struggles.

No.

Gray-gray-gray-black-white-gray—it was everywhere, she was nowhere.

No!

She—She—He didn't even have a name to call out, no a syllable or a sweet nothing, just an empty word that had escaped like smoke into the gray atmosphere.

"NO!"

She consumed him: the rough, callous tips of her fingers, the long, bleeding tracks her nails made down his back, the grimy, soft strands of purple hair against his cheeks, the long, fluttering lashes that framed her luminous, goddess-like eyes…

It was only when his vision began to blur from the steady red haze that he felt the hot moisture rolling down his cheeks. It was only when his throat seized he realized he was screaming.

"To this day, Placido still doesn't know how he survived that day," I mused, excusing the quiet lisp of my voice on fatigue. Zone and I both knew otherwise. "It must have been that her last shot at Grounel, even though it hadn't killed it, had weakened it enough for his bullets to pierce. But so lost in his despair, Placido hardly registered that he had taken down the monster who had stolen his lover. He wished for death, and when it was not received, he sought it out."

Blood turned black by the poison of night; Placido continued to gouge his hands against the rubble, working with a frenzy of a man gone mad. Sobbing, trembling, his muscles begged for release from the tight, futile labor, ignored by his blank, desperate mind. He had to find her—just dig her out like she had him. That was all this was! A reversal of fates—it had to be!

She had used his fire to take out Grounel the day they met, he had nearly been blasted into oblivion by the demon-powered monstrosity, and then he had been buried, suffocated, only to have her give him the sweet release of air, of life, of love again. Now he could do the same for her, and they would be together, and it would be beautiful, and they'd have a new world under their feet…

Unseen, the moon had dipped back below the horizon by the time Placido found her, agonized screams reverberating through the room when his shredded, slick palms clutched her limp face, still frozen in that smile. His fingers trailed through her matted hair, painted the sides of her face crimson, and tenderly cupped the smashed hand that was left; her entire right arm disintegrated by the laser.

Glassy, dull eyes stared blankly out past him, fixed on the point over the horizon that had been denied to him once more. Gray, unremarkable, hue less, ugly, and completely without life—just like the rest of this world. Howling, he hefted what was left of her, the lower half of her body dragging limply behind, leaving stains behind.

He stroked her hair, her cheeks, her lips, her shoulders, clung to her back and sobbed into her chest, cradled her head and hands in his own, kissed clumsily everywhere but those lips that would not respond and avoided looking in those eyes that only reflected the hell around them. They no longer cared for the promises they had made, for the world they would save, or for their love that barely had time to bloom.

"W-we'll have a small house," he whispered between sobbing gasps, hands sliding over her face, so covered in their mixed blood. "So that we'll never have to be alone."

Pulling her so close his arms threatened to break, sobs rolled down his back, tears down his cheeks. "We'll… we'll have two b-beautiful children, with y-your—"

Unable to spit out the word that had betrayed him so ruthlessly, he held her and screamed more, waiting for the Machine Emperors to come and challenge him, to find him shrieking and anguished, to die here with these shattered fantasies…

"We'll name them Ryuuko and Kitai," he pressed, the names a moan too low to be called pain. She said nothing, did nothing, did not smile or laugh or sob or bite or thrash or threaten to shoot him for being weak. Too late… too late…

"We'll have n-neighbors," he gasped, curling her closer still. "Kitai will fall in l-love with their daughter."

_Will she be as beautiful as you, with your misleading ideals and lovely lies? Will she leave him with unfulfilled promises and without death too?_

"L-love," he moaned, because it was all he could call her, without a name, without a soul, without the breath of life to identify herself as his savior and devil. "When they grow up, they'll visit on weekends with their kids, and we'll spoil them rotten."

She would slip them sweets under their knitted blankets, fluff pillows, and he would cook for them, find work with his hands. The soft fall sun would shine through the changing leaves outside their cozy home, ignored under the laughter and joking from the den. Warmth would ooze from shared glances and cuddling glee, children would tear into presents, games would be played, mundane stories swapped, and when the night fell and the house was quiet, they'd slip upstairs and under five heavy layers of blankets, stare into each other's eyes, and he would say her name, and she would say his, and they'd fall asleep staring into the face of love…

"And we'll die old together," he chocked out, the illusion slipping from him with her cold hand, "leaving the world in each other's arms."

I had nothing to disguise this pause with; the tears tracking down my stinging eyes gave me away quicker than my shaking breath. "He still clung to her promise that night."

Zone made a slight movement, and I was struck with the absurd thought that he would wipe my tears away with his gloved hands. But he did no such thing, instead letting me pull myself together, rubbing leathery old skin against irritated aged, green eyes. "He stayed there until the sun was high up in the sky, hoping that the Emperors would come back and claim him so he could die in her arms. But things were too quiet that day—none of them passed. Whether he liked it or not, Placido had survived the apocalypse. Humanity was eradicated."

"He couldn't stand to go by what his nameless lover had called him, so Placido changed it once more, deciding on his middle name, Jose," I muttered, looking anywhere but the slits in Zone's mask for his eyes. "Though it was futile, he swore to search for others so that her dream would not be wasted, so that humanity could rise again. He grew old doing that, old and entirely alone."

Each day, each season, each year: time passed on; sometimes so quick it was as if he blinked, others agonizingly slow. Each city, he passed was the same: destroyed, in ruins, bones accumulating on the streets with little to no animal life left to live off of. Each second he was sure death would finally rise and greet him, would steal him from the miserable life of a phantom. Each moment he was proved wrong, time and time again, left in despair, but toiling on nevertheless, searching for something beyond his weathered reach.

"And then," I muttered, finally composed enough to glance back at him. Zone's blue eyes regarded me thoughtfully, having already seen where I was going with this, but I refused to stop, knowing on some detached level that he needed to hear it. "When Jose was at the end of his rope, he collapsed in the ruins of a city where Momentum had been created. There, he found three men who took him in, fed him, and gave him what he never thought was possible: a future."

Knowing Zone's dislike for contact, but ignoring it, I laid a hand on his cloaked shoulder, feeling the muscles tense below it. "Luciano, Placido, Jose—whose name from then on was Aporia, which meant doubt in the English she had spoken so fluently, because that was all he had left to overcome—they all lost what they loved, one man bore three great despairs."

_Paradox, Antinomy, and myself…_

"But he found something greater in the end, though the memories haunted him. He found he had life left to fight for, and he found great friends who could help him do it. He found a light in the darkness. He found a miracle named Zone. And they would fight for the world."

"Aporia," he began, shifting under my hand. I gripped it tighter in response, settling the soon to be god with a gentle squeeze.

"It's alright, Zone," I smiled, though he couldn't see it under my billow beard. "We are going to create a new world, even past death. Our memory remains."

"Memories remain…" he trailed off, staring past me with those sapphire eyes, so blue the gods must have plucked them from the skies. We sat in silence on Antinomy's bed, taking comfort in the familiar scent of oil that hung in the air, and the quiet that usual wrapped around us as we worked. His hands had fallen still in his lap, the red visor limp in his grip.

"Memories remain!"

I jumped as he stood, nearly toppling me off the sheets with his sudden outburst. Though his back was to me, I could imagine the shine in his eyes as his thoughts raced, determined to outdo each other, spinning in their never-ending cyclical nature. Surprising as it was, it was over quickly, his emotions back in check and his tone calculating once more.

"Aporia," he whispered, looking back at me over his shoulder. The burned flesh of his left half was wrinkled slightly, the only sign of the grim smile playing at his hidden lips. "There still is hope after all."

* * *

…

_Zone…_

_Zone… I wonder… if you had this much life in you… why you let it go…?_

Looking up into those same blue eyes, so bright with intelligence and anger, dark with hatred and uncertainty, I was able to lend him one last smile, knowing the hand I had left outstretched was not empty in the end.

"But I know what you want—no. I know what you and Bruno gave your lives for, and I won't let that go to waste!"

Did he know how brightly he burned with this vow, could he feel the rising feeling of hope within himself as he told me those words?

"With the power of our bonds, we will overcome Zone!"

Did he know how powerful those truly were—how they could kill him in the end—already had? His fist kept shaking, but his mind was steady, giving me an answer I could accept.

"With your sacrifice, we know his strategy, and with Bruno's… I have the means to end this!"

His hands or the child's were on my shoulder, just as mine had rested on Zone's when Antinomy had died, telling me the stories he would stop with the bright will in his eyes. So much life, so much beautiful, imperfect perfection in that human soul…

My hand fell on my duel disk, charging it with my last bit of energy, willing it to go to Yusei's D-Wheel upon my death, to give him the power of flight he already had…

Darkness crept into the edges of my vision, dying my world a steady gray, the color of her eyes.

_I'm glad… that I gave hope… to the future…_

"Aporia!"_  
_

_To… Zone…_

_"Aporia!"__  
_

_Yusei…_

_"APORIA!"  
_

My hand fell, never to rise again.

_Aporia… my name is…_

Laughter.

* * *

**NOT the next chapter, an interlude.**

**IMPORTANT:**

So, in order to continue this, I'll need an epic duel between Yusei and Zone... but since we only know a handful of Zone's cards, I have a request for you guys. **Please** send me the duel in the following episodes, **just** the duel. I don't want any dialogue, just the cards and the order they are played. Now before anyone complains, remember, this is what I did with Mistakes**, **and I used it then so I could manipulate the duel between Yusei, Jack, Crow, and Goodwin.

So **please** help me out so I can stop spamming the bold button. Just tell me if you can in a review and I'll post who volunteered in the next interlude before the next chapter. :D

...

So, only I could blow a five second scene into 6,000 words, right? Hehehehehehe...

Thanks for reading!  
~AxJfan


	5. So even if your Heart's

**Well, as I said in the description:**

**SPOILERS TO 145 + ahead!**

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Yugioh 5ds.  
**

* * *

**Interlude:**

**So Even if your heart's…**

**Bruno/Antinomy's POV  
**

_The happiest days of my life were with you._

_Did you understand, I wonder, what that meant?_

_Could you?_

"BRUNO!"

Your last call still echoes around me, consoling me, filling the holes in my form as quickly as they appear, leaving that silver glow of dust that marked your signature effect. Even in death you were still a victim's sanctuary, Yusei.

I had long since stopped moving, leaving me floating in nothing with something to hold on to—that hand you had extended long before and after I pushed you out. Confusion, despair, and uncertainty: they had all vanished in this pit, leaving me behind in the aftermath of your light.

No, not light, it was never light.

_"Accel Synchro is more than light, Antinomy."_

"Zone," I breathe out, marveling the smile still gracing my lips with his name. "Yusei."

_I've asked the impossible from you again, Yusei. You cannot save Zone, just as you cannot save yourself—exactly the same way actually. But you _need_ to challenge him regardless, you _need_ to defeat him, you _need_ to save him, but not here, not in the physical world, not in the present. _

_Yusei… you must…_

"Antinomy."

It was the second time he said my name, yet I still couldn't find the strength to reply. The cold frown was still worn on his face like a crown, his dark sapphire eyes remained bored, bangs still fell haphazardly in them, and his back was still tall, erect, distant… surely nothing had changed and I was just imagining his voice?

"Antinomy," he repeated, finally crossing the room and touching my shoulder.

Too much.

"You speak?" I finally spluttered. For his credit, he did not appear taken aback by the abrupt shout and maintained his indifferent expression with ease.

"Not often," he replied, the sarcasm that was supposed to sharpen his tone missing. Vaguely, I detected the understatement of the century. Three months I had been with him, three months we had built weapons against Grounel, Wisel, and Skiel, three months I had eradicated Momentum with him, three months I had searched for survivors with him, and for three months he had kept himself hidden in silence. Usually all it took was a new blueprint he showed me, accompanied by vague gestures and gathered materials to communicate. But this…

And the touch…

I glanced down at his gloved hand, firmly set on my shoulder. The first shake of our palms had been our last, the moment I consented and joined him, wept before him, and allowed him to steer me to his shelter—that had been it.

"You don't like touch," I repeated, feeling idiotic even to my own ears. The one and only time I had attempted to do what he was doing now, he had smacked my hand away a moment before it made contact and glanced at me out of the corner of his eyes.

He did raise an eyebrow now, the only concerned sign he felt the need to show me.

"You're shocked," he informed gently, steering me away from the woman's body we had stumbled across and the bloody message beside her. I offered no resistance as he pushed me down onto the pile of debris that had half the woman buried and forced me to look in his eyes. "You weren't moving. It seemed necessary."

"Would your silence have continued if we had not found this…" I pointed weakly in the direction of the message, offering, "This woman's lover… claims that…"

My gaze betrayed his and strayed towards the clumsy writing once more, mouthing the words in numb incomprehension, _"The Machine Emperors believe their mission is over. My lover and I have staked out this area for too long to remember, and their patrols and guards have all vanished. Although the last fight took her life, I will carry on her will and search for other survivors. If anyone is to read this message, do not give up. There are others out there, and I will find them. I will find you."_

And the oddest sentence, the conclusion where a signature should be, _ "I will learn your name."_

"It's most likely true," he avoided once he had seen me finish, trapping me with both hands on my shoulders. Blankly, I gazed at him, trying to take meaning into his new words, the frigid temperature of his eyes. "We did not see one Machine Emperor in our two weeks searching this area."

"You're interacting with me and those devils are gone," I echoed faintly. "The world already ended but… who are you and what have you done with Fudo—"

_"Zone_," he snapped, releasing me immediately with a quick step back. The movement was so abrupt it took me a handful of precious seconds to see it, and a few more to understand what he said.

"Zone?"

"Call me Zone," he repeated, voice betraying nothing, but his body saying it all. Muscles so tense they shook, a scowl with its own venom, and the slit, cold glare warned me off the topic, but now that he was talking, _living_ with me after three months of non-human contact, three months of speculations and curiosity…

"So you're not Fudo—"

"Do _not_," he interrupted swiftly, voice a little more than a hiss, "call me that name, Antinomy."

It was the first true hint I had that he was even still human, the first flash of emotion I was able to goad from that closed face. The tensed, aggressive scowl faded after a moment and a clenched fist, but those eyes continued to watch me, to warn me against challenging him.

"But—"

They shared an unthinkable amount of likeness with one another: the man before me and the one that had decorated posters on my wall; from black and gold hair that spiked in every direction untamed, to nearly black eyes the caught the moonlight more than the sun, to a D-Wheel as crimson as the mark on his arm, to the same Security pattern on his left cheek... he really was going to pretend that he wasn't…?

The way he handled machines and guided me along without needing to speech, the rasp of his voice, obviously strong although quiet, that hand that always remained extended towards me all pointed to the same person: the man who stood a legend in the Riding Duel world, who preached about hope, and who claimed to be who he was because of his bonds.

About to share the evidence, even standing in case the pressure would cause him to snap and lash out, I felt the fight drain from me. "Oh, I see," was all that came out before I made my way to the glass-less windows and leaned against them, pressing my forehead against the cool concrete. "I apologize… Zone."

_Who he is because of his bonds …_

I was being selfish. This world had been ripped apart, not just my own. Though I had played the last Synchro Monster that brought the destruction, he had spurred its evolution and lived with the legacy of its creation. If I had not played that last card, then some other poor fool would have, but he was born into his fate, with that heart that used to blaze and those eyes that used to shine.

He had destroyed himself with those truths… through the death of his bonds and the destruction of this world Fudo Yusei had…

"It's fine, Antinomy."

To have your entire world uprooted, surrounded by loved ones you'd die for one moment and then to have the opposite happen, to be left utterly alone in a universe gone mad: full of despair and death and no hope at all… who was I to push him? I had been alone far before this, I believed in my own will and no one else's, always fighting with my managers and ignoring my fans…

I may have lost what feeble life I had and been sent in the dark pit of despair, but I had come out alive, he had saved me, given me a hand, watched me weep, just stood by me, but he had been alone.

"And no."

I jumped, thoughts chased away by his voice. "No?"

Crossing the room in a few even strides, he settled beside me on the window, staring out into the gray, charred remains of his city. Something more than just humanity had shifted within him today. The wind, so still in the dead world, was charged, pulsating, through the gaping crater in the floor and holes in the wall, and his dark eyes had gone unbelievably bright, the intelligence that had always been there calculating and sharp.

Somehow, that light was far more chilling than his blackness. I no longer doubted he was Zone and not Yusei. The legendary crimson duelist was said to be many things, but terrifying was not one, not even to enemies he had defeated, and certainly not in amusement.

"You asked me if my silence would have continued," he clarified, leaning down on the sill. Darting across his eyes like shadow play, thoughts brooded and collected in surprising amounts, their intensity so close to the surface they struck me speechless.

"Then why play mute for so long?" I demanded, forcibly dragging my attention away from the man locked inside him to the one actually operating.

"I suppose I was like the nameless lover," he answered after a pause. "And the world she was reaching for was the smoke."

Presence acknowledged, the woman with the purple hair and gray, sightless eyes suddenly seemed all the more potent, her outstretched hand and bloodied body nearly alive with her tragic tale. Disturbed, I returned back to studying Zone, his suddenly relaxed posture, the way the hot breeze played with his hair almost fondly, but he seemed to be done with speaking.

Frustrated, I groaned, "You were easier to understand when you said nothing at all. Perhaps silence is best if you speak in riddles."

A flicker of recognition darted across his eyes so quickly that I would have missed it had I not been looking for it. The upward twitch of his lips was more of a reflex than a smile, and the answer still bleak and without humor or warmth, but I took it as a victory all the same. "Perhaps you should listen, Antinomy, as silence often says more than words."

"You give me too much credit if you think I'll be able to decode you so easily," I muttered back, digging for an answer. "I'm starting to think you're just avoiding telling me how you feel."

He nodded, no shame at all in admitting the truth, no emotions left to give for the bleak world. "I felt that this world was filled with enough madness to need another man's despair."

"And now?" I prompted bleakly, still not seeing the twisted metaphor Zone's complex mind toyed with, or perhaps the sickness of Death that was playing with his mind. Both seemed equally likely, for although there was some warmth to him today, after finding this dead woman and a promise of a survivor, but in the days that had come before, he had remained as cold, pale, and listless as a reanimated corpse, one of the staggering dead piled around us.

"Listen, Antinomy."

His lids slid shut; leaving him vulnerable to any incoming attacks or falling debris that fate would choose to smite him with. He may as well have tried doing a handstand on the sill instead, at least that way he could see his demise coming!

"Zone—you don't really believe that they're all gone do—?" I was interrupted again by a blank look from a slit blue eye, appraising me openly and without mercy.

Attacked by a sudden, vengeful memory, it took me a few blank seconds to return. How many times had paparazzi caught this same image of him? On nearly every duel magazine in these approaching years, all of his articles had been covered with pictures of him on the bridge with his eyes closed, at mercy of the wind, sometimes not even noticing their presence until they were right beside him, snapping their cameras.

Struck speechless, I wondered, _Did he know?_

He sighed into the wind, blind, letting it bring pin prints of sweat across his brow and carry ashes into his thin lips. Cautious, there was little other options at this point other than to just listen to him.

I closed my eyes.

Darkness pressed against my steely eyes from all angles. Muscles tensed in charged anticipation, forcing my ears to their full limit to sense any incoming danger to Zone or myself.

Nothing.

No one screamed, no buildings fell, no fires cackled, no Emperors hummed; no sobs rang, no birds shrieked, just… nothing. Nothing but the soft even breathes of my sole companion and the frenzied beating of my heart. This silence was unnatural—the warning before an Emperor's attack! We had to move—we had to run—

But as the words formed on my lips and my eyes pried open, I felt Zone's pointed stare at my panicked, half crazed conclusion, and felt the shouts die in my throat. His hand caught my wrist—_again with the touch!—_to keep me still, and he drilled his bright and dangerous, unfeeling irises into my own.

"What do you hear, Antinomy?"

"Nothing. It's quiet."

Again, he nodded. "We are all that's left to fill this void, our breaths and the words we speak. So yes…"

Softly, he echoed, "It's quiet."

…

The first words he had chosen to fill that silence with were my name and a lie.

_Take my hand! Bruno!_

The tense silence of that day did this one no justice. With only the sound of my memories and thoughts to keep me company, I was beginning to truly understand what Zone had meant about being like the nameless woman, Aporia's lover. To be eternally quiet, to be silenced by a world gone mad, and to have your will continue once it was pillaged and left for dead.

To be the last one left.

...

I did not dare question him. It took me several attempts to gain his usually sharp attention more than once, and by the time the lackluster sun had set, fear had settled in my uncertain gut once more.

He had not moved from where he stood when I had woken this morning. That bizarre brightness was glinting in his eyes again like the sheen of a well-polished blade, travelling down the tapered edge until it faded into oblivion.

It made me uneasy.

But I would continue to follow him, he was my savior, my only weak hope in this gray, dead world, even if he had very little of it to offer. Conversations were near impossible to swindle from him, started by a message he had brooded over and ending with a cold detachment and appraisal from blue irises.

I wondered if he intended to make himself a mute.

Finally, I could take no more of his self-imposed silence, not when he was standing like the legendary duelist had before this world became rotten, not when his gaze wasn't hidden behind his long bangs or visor but was still unreadable, not when I had such a strong image of that hopeful legend in my mind, who could take the ruins from this world and recreate it with his open hands.

I crossed the rocky terrain we had slept on and put my hand on his shoulder, "Zone—"

The sting of his palm swatting me away went unfelt. He was too late to save me this time. Revulsion chocked its way up my throat as it flashed across my vision, forcing me to my knees. I barely noticed the Synchro monster slip from my deck and land before me, firmly planted between my convulsing form and the cliff.

My eyes slid shut, and in this absolute world of silent decay, I could imagine the Machine Emperor bearing down at me, just about to fire…

Boots crunched a few loose pebbles and he dipped down to one knee, the tiny cracks like gunshots. No sound or touch was offered this time, just his steady presence, just the shell of the man he once was, who I was beginning to understand would not revive from the ashes of this world, no matter how much hope I threw at him. "W-What the hell was…?"

For when my eyes slid open that gaping, dripping, _bleeding_ cavern in the sky had vanished, leaving only the continual grays from smoke and dust of collapsing buildings and the harsh conditions from a slaving ozone. Desperate, I twisted towards him and found his gaze locked on where I had last seen the knife wound in the world, those dangerous weapons shrieking in them, even a hazy tint of the crimson that wound bled reflected there.

_Crimson!_

Shocked and mad, I pawed at his right arm with a sense of direction and fever, heat radiating from my frozen chest and sending frigid sweat down my brow. Zone did nothing to stop me as I tore at his jacket's sleeve and his glove was tossed towards the end of the cliffs, next to my card.

Of course he didn't, this man was just a copy, a failed attempt to embody the legendary duelist who granted redemption and hope with just a sideways glance from his sapphire eyes. This was an unfeeling, cold, detached, _dead_ man, not one so full of radiance and light and love that he had the entire world at his feet with no intention of using it, not the man who was marked by a _Crimson God_ to be its warrior, it's leader against all hell.

_I must see it. I have to see it._

Eventually, he grew bored of my useless clawing and slid from his sleeves himself, unbothered by the contact now that I knew why he had shied from it earlier. Half yanking his arm from his socket, I clung to the limb in a greedy sort of dizzy hunger, raking the grimy, tan flesh for any sign of it…

Finally, it was there.

Chunks of his skin were missing and scarred over, long, ragged tracks ran over it like a beast had clawed him, and the flesh that did remain was disfigured and warped, fragile and rough like it had been doused in an inferno. The crimson seemed to have seeped into him with all the damage, the remaining edges of that mark fading into the heavy scars that bled without being open.

Barely there—not visible if you weren't looking for it… even I couldn't be certain those lines were not just more reminders of an unreachable past, just fakes, scars, tracks his fingernails had made into his skin…

The rest of his arm, although sticky with sweat, dirt, and dried blood, was pristine and unharmed, leaving the only possible culprit of these injuries to be the absolutely terrifying, brilliant, and mad light in his eyes. Gingerly, I loosened my squeeze until it was a caress, feathering over the lines of the mark, transfixed. It was only when my vision began to blur from the steady red haze that I felt the hot moisture rolling down my cheeks.

Forcing myself away from the indifferent gaze he gave the mark he had tried to claw from his body, I turned instead to look through his eyes at the obliterated mess left in humanity's wake. Once I had my fill of the gaping hole hovering over our city, our world, and the empty eternity its bloody and death filled bowels promised, I released him and allowed him to approach the cliffs, retrieve his glove, and hide his hidden agony from the world—no, from me, all that was left in his world.

"This is nothing new, Antinomy," he said eventually. I almost choked on the wild, howling cackles that threatened to escape me. Nothing new? We were exactly as we started—standing over a view of certain death, at the feet of the Synchros that had caused it, on my knees while he stood in silence that screamed so much I wept.

"The world is dead," he continued regardless, finally allowing me into a shred of his thoughts, a part of his great mind. "And what you have seen now is just proof of that—of the greed that drove humanity to extinction."

"What… what _happened_ to us Zone? What caused all this?"

I hadn't meant for him to answer the questions, I just needed to release them before they tore at me any further with that odious, malevolent beast that had hovered over my head, unnoticed, silent, all this time. But he did regardless. "Though you will disagree, this is a fault of my own, or rather, I made a mistake and others decided to follow it. I was the catalyst, just as you were the ignition."

"Z-Zone…"

He eyed me from his perch, unwavering and blank, no real grief showing through his features. "That world you saw when you touched me is the one I caused many to strive for—the world of Speed, of the true Accel Synchro."

Images of his duels, the prolific flashes of green, violet, and red light that engulfed him and wisped him away for that brief moment before he reappeared with Shooting Star Dragon bombarded me, along with the craze that came after its first appearance in a duel against the former King, Jack Atlas. Accel Synchro had quickly accelerated on the dueling field, cards were made and bought like candy, although where he had gotten his original was unknown, but speculated to be the work of the Crimson Dragon.

So many duelists had played those cards, expecting that magical burst of light and the serene _power_ that oozed from their champion afterwards, only to find themselves using a new Synchro monster. Interview after interview had revealed research on 'Clear Mind,' a different state of being the duelist had to tap into, and theories such as the 'Speed World' floated around and were confirmed by the duelist's lips.

And then the Machine Emperors had come…

"It was our own fault," he continued, sensing where my thoughts had ended. "Once Clear Mind was discovered, many rash duelists took it on themselves to try it, with poor results, all disrupting the world and its entrance. I spent the last year before this disaster occurred taking several peeks into the world, watching it dissolve and trying to fix it by teaching my friends the proper way to do it, by choosing certain duelists in the rising world to be role models for the younger ones. I continued this even when our destruction had come."

"By this point, humanity was still desperate." All of these words were just facts, not experiences. "And we still could fight then with the Accel Synchro during the first year, while they acted through Ghost to establish their ties in this realm. But of course, with fear and hatred ruling their attempts at Clear Mind, the Speed World on became worse, more vicious, a reflection of humanity itself."

"So it really was us…?" It seemed too convenient somehow, too easy to place all the blame on greed and hatred instead of one source, and too cruel that we had somehow willingly brought ourselves into this hell.

"Yes," Zone replied. "I watched it happen and fought against it. The Speed World is so deeply wound into ours that it is a mirror, the unconscious energy that runs human life—it is there that Momentum draws its power from as well. So, as humans lost their ability to fight through duels without the Accel Synchro, the Machine Emperors lost their Ghosts. As humanity moved towards bloodshed, nuclear war, and guns, the Machine Emperors gained lasers and sensors to find us. As humanity forgot love and turned towards greed and desperation, the Machine Emperors forgot their mission of love and mimicked the ugly, scarred world they were now tied to."

"Mission?" I echoed faintly, but did not doubt.

"Remember, the Speed World is our mirror, and humanity created the monsters that destroyed it. All the hatred, aggravation, and confusion that humanity poured into it while trying to reach for infinite evolution created those Infinity Symbols on their chests, their ability to steal growth, and their slick, futuristic bodies. The world is a creature of balance and interaction, Antinomy, and they were created to defend their home against the one destroying it."

"But they were machines!" I protested almost immediately. "They were unfeeling killers, they sought us out and slaughtered us!"

"And who struck the first blow?"

"Don't you dare take their side!" I hollered, unable to stand, feeling the searing bile rise up within me. The red from the world, his destroyed arm, and the Dragon that had marked him crept in the edges of my already red-tinted glasses. How could he just stand there and blame us for our own deaths? How could he call out the faults of the dead world? How could he _defend_ the monsters that had murdered it?

How could he just stand there and not feel what he was saying, how could he stay so impartial to his own death?

"Yusei!" I spat, digging for a reaction, any faint twitch or throb of his scars. "Fudo Yusei! The man who gave humanity so much hope—where the hell is that man? Yusei—stop this cowardly hiding behind Zone—come out and face yourself! Tell me your truth again Yusei! _Stop lying to me!_"

Nothing. Not even a twitch at the eyes or the hiss he had offered nine fruitless months ago. My arms itched to throttle him, to beat the vacant expression from his famous face, to grip that mark so tightly it would burn again, but refused to let go of the hand he was still offering me.

"Antinomy, my name is Zone," was all he had to say and I looked up wishing the venom in my voice was stronger, "Yes, I believe that now."

But even if he was Zone, he would always be Yusei to me, even if it brought this impossible seizing in my chest. I would follow him regardless of his views and taint, I would continue to hope for his miracle working, I could wait for him to phoenix back to the world that needed him until the bitter end.

"Why are we alive then?" I wondered bitterly, reaching for my card and stowing it back in my deck. "We're the worst of them, aren't we? Yusei with his truth, Zone with lies, me with the Accel Synchro… even that man who wrote the message in his lover's blood."

He spared no mercy now that he knew there was no point, "We all wished for death, Antinomy, for release, for an end, not for victory."

"So our broken wills saved us?" I muttered, a tired laugh breaking back my lips.

He shook his head, "No, our acceptance of an end did. No eternity, no hope, just silence and clarity. The cause, the effect, and the outcome: The last Signer, the last Synchro Summon, and the last warrior: Clear Mind."

Finally, I rose as he turned to me. Bitter, I wondered, "So it was just that lightshow that we all strived for that cast this shadow?"

"You still aren't listening," he relied, his back to that shredded opening in the sky, those shining knives still in his eyes. "Accel Synchro is more than light, Antinomy."

He held out his hand once more, and I took it.

…

My left side is gone now, I think, probably my legs too. Maybe my eyes, it's not like there is anything for them to see anymore. Just nothing, something I only remembered like a scattered memory, one last truth that Zone had hidden from me.

But it was there now; I could reach for it if I could just get my hand to move…

….

"Antinomy."

I could barely hear him over the hacking, wet cries of my throat as I coughed up any attempt at air my lungs took. It was better this way, because I could imagine the firm voice that had guided me in my first few years of dying instead of the robotic imitation of it.

"W-Where?" I gasped.

"Rest easy, Antinomy," the only human voice left called, accompanied by the pneumonic hiss of the tinted glass sliding away and revealing my frail state to the throne room we had built together in the Speed World, which responded to Zone's desires far more readily than our own, but would not keep us alive as it did him…

"A-Aporia," I managed. The soft blacks and grays of the outside realm gathered across my vision like fireflies, darting and distracting me from his weary, old green eyes and exposed wrinkles. So human, so beautiful, so tragic. He did not hide behind a mask or tinted glasses; he readily showed us his grief and despair, his tale as the man who lost his lover before losing his will to live…

He was the best of us, and now he was the only one who stood a chance of reaching him, of saving him, of helping him create a world instead of watching him be destroyed by one. "In my… room… get… Synchro…"

It was a pitiful attempt to make him leave, but he leapt on it right away with that gentle, sad smile. Only when the sounds of his walking cane against the hard floor faded did I address him with a sort of choked laugh, muttering, "Good man… the most violent of us… great man…"

I felt his touch, cold and automatic instead of animated, and knew his right arm was holding me, the missing limb I had shed more tears over than he had. But that was alright. Somewhere in the past month, when I had begun sleeping in this pod to prolong my life no doubt, I had lost most feeling on my leathery skin. I could pretend he still had his mark too, that there was still a chance for him.

He did not say anything, and with his face hidden behind that black and white mask, I could not tell if he was trying to, or if the poison of our world had taken the will from him. My vision was already wavering as it was… I did not need yet another obstacle in my way…

Finally, he said my name, my name and a lie, "Antinomy, you will be fine. We have already created Zero Reverse and the Signers have overcome Goodwin's trap. We will see this world through together."

How could he say such words without heart behind them? Was it just that machine that tried to speak for him malfunctioning? If he removed that mask, would I see a shine in those sapphire eyes?

If I could just get my hand to move…

"Y-You," I breathed, a weight on my chest and forehead settling the coughs deep within my withering ribs. My fingers twitched as I struggled to move them, urging myself forward with the promise of his dark blue eyes, not the daggers of the Speed World, but the endless pits decorated with silver, the mirrors instead of windows…

"You've become… the god of this… world… not I," I huffed. My arm lifted with a struggle, hovering a few inches above the cushioned chamber trying to keep me alive. "And… you don't… want me… to live… to suffer… like you…"

I wonder if his eyes widened when I let him discover what I had known all along, why the last surviving civilian, Paradox, had died and why Aporia and I aged while he remained frozen old, but not weary, in time. Did his burned, scarred lips part in surprise now that the secret they had stayed locked tight for was out? Or did his heart—surely he still had one—tremble because I understood and did not blame him for taking this on his own shoulders, for letting us die instead of suffering beside him, even though we desperately wished to and would follow him even further past the ends of this world?

Halfway there, and he did not move away from my approaching touch. He had no need to—there were no more truths for him to lie about here. What harm would seeing his face one last time do—a face that had started faded from my decaying mind nearly a decade ago, when we found Aporia in the ruins of the sea between the Satellite and Neo Domino City.

But never the name, never the name…

"But… please… promise me…" I begged. My hand reached for the groves of his cheeks, just below those dangerous, hopeful, fearful, and fake eyes, the darkness that had begun to revive still just out of my sight. I wondered if the weight I felt was that of my burdens, or of his, or of the worlds, and if I had died on the earth, would I have felt it this acutely?

It pressed into me, stemming from his metallic touch, determined to grind me into the ground that did not exist below my feet, sprouting red and black and hints of white in my sight, over that black and white face.

"Do… not… forget…"

The lingering touch eluded me now, sight following close behind, tunneling around that mask, that symbol of his distance from humanity, from a savior, from himself, from me… But I couldn't… not yet… I needed him to vow… I could not rest unless…

"Yusei…"

My fingers brushed against it. His name, his true name, he could not forget, I would not let him forget. Trembling, I searched for strength to pull it from his face, to force him to see the world, to keep hope, but could only find a hollow sense of nothing expanding from my ribs.

_No… Yusei, you must listen… not yet… because…_

"Even if…" I was falling, fading, or slipping away, or perhaps all three, the darkness that serenaded me was so smooth, gentle, carless, it was hard to tell, and I did not particularly care anymore, but I had to tell him… had to finish with my last breath, had to take that mask from him, "… your heart…"

My hand fell.

But I continued to reach, stretching what was left of me—what _was_ left of me?—towards that last wish, last desire, and found myself shouting without a mouth, sobbing without eyes, smiling without lips, "Do not forget Yusei! Even if your heart has been hidden, it has not died! You are not alone!"

_BRUNO!_

_And I… I am not alone either._

The hand continued to reach, even when the rest had vanished, stretching until the last fingertip was swallow from view, fading away in a gentle, silver dust. No voices echoed in the black hole, no firing memories, no fleeting emotions were left to fill it; they had all been consumed, and vanished into the pit of despair.

It was quiet.

* * *

**NOT the next chapter, an interlude.**

**IMPORTANT:**

**MESSAGE TO KAIBAGIRL (anon):** If Yugioh Wikia does not have episode summaries on their pages, then YES! I will use this and thank you. But please tell me if they do so I don't get any hints about the episode other than the previews and Janime stuff.

**The one who will be giving me the cards? (if Yugioh Wikia does have summaries):** CAP, otherwise known as **CluelessAndProud **on Youtube before she stopped, and **CrazyFangirl101** on deviantart, where we will be exchanging the info since I just got an account. Thank you deviantart!

And a BIG thank you to **TenkaCat** (shameless advertising of amazing authoress) for offering to help in spite of her busy schedule!

Thanks for reading!  
~AxJfan


	6. Lost in Disarray

**Well, as I said in the description:**

**SPOILERS TO 145 + ahead!**

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Yugioh 5ds.**

**So I have finally gotten hold of the entire duel of Yusei vs Zone and am rather pleased with the opportunities it leaves. BIG thanks to CFG101 for that (AKA CAP) and the updates will come swiftly. I've already written everything but the duels!**

**AN UPDATE A DAY (or so) UNTIL THE NEW EPISODE AIRS. Make sure to keep checking, they'll be quick!  
**

* * *

**Lost in Disarray**

**Arc Cradle**

**Third Person POV  
**

"I'll revive that hope within you!"

Zone's eyes locked on his, two twin sapphires clashing and warring with each other, both hidden behind two similarly different masks, both ready to risk their lives on their beliefs. Yusei could feel the held breaths of his friends as they waited for the duel to start, and as they feared Sherry's prophecy to come true.

_The eye that watched our families die in Zero Reverse. The eye that watched the Dark Signers rip loved ones apart. The eye that watched his friends suffer and die. The eye of a killer._

And it looks so familiar.

"Yusei." He broke contact and twisted around in his seat as Sherry's warm hand descended on his shoulder. It tightened when their eyes met, demanding every ounce of attention he had to spare be spent on her next words. "Zone will try to save you."

His expression did not falter, and she knew to continue. "Zone is responsible for the death of my parents, and yet, even knowing that, I decided to follow him. He is responsible for Zero Reverse, and consequently, the deaths of team 5ds parents as well. Knowing this, I did not take revenge on him. Do you understand Yusei?"

"You trust Zone, Sherry?" he replied. "But even so, you want me to defeat him."

Her brows creased lightly over her scowl, neither gesture affecting the warmth flooding her harsh eyes. "Trust? No. That is not true. I did not trust him, I have only ever trusted my family and Mizoguchi." She leaned forward, forcing more pressure on my shoulder. "The reason I did not attack him like I did Aporia was because what I felt from him and what I feel from you are the same."

The determined lines in his face deepened, wiping his expression completely blank with her words, his eyes freezing over. Hers narrowed. "Yusei, I agree with what Aporia and Antinomy asked of you. He is too important to be either a killer or an enemy. I demanded that he let me fight for him, not the other way around. I was not brainwashed, I was saved, given a purpose in my despair. Then Aki and Crow gave me a purpose from what he gave me. He is a catalyst Yusei, for good or for bad. And I demand that you save him!"

_"Yusei! Save Zone!"_

_"Team 5ds… save… him…"_

A glare replaced the ice, and she released him, giving him plenty of room to take off with Aporia's final gift. He glanced down at the idle crimson wings, casting him in their violent light and thought, _A gift meant to help and uplift, not to fight. _

From what he had witnessed, he would have had no difficulty fighting Zone on the Arc Cradle in a ground or riding duel, and yet Aporia had saved his last spark of life to give him wings so that he could fly with Zone. Did he mean to give him an easier time accessing the Speed World to reach him? _What were your intentions Aporia? How will this help me save him?_

The lost man drew him from his musings like a moth to flame, taking to the sky when Sherry had finished. "Come then Yusei. We will fight to see whose path is correct, and at the very least, it will run the clock dry until your city's destruction."

"Let's go, Zone!" He gunned the D-Wheel forward, lurching when the machine catapulted upwards and into the closed in sky. Adrenaline pumped through his muscles as they worked to keep the giant crimson wings steady, jerking about in their holsters as he attempted to steer.

_"Duel!"_

"Kick his ass!" Crow hollered, pumping his fists in the air.

"Get him Yusei!" Rua shouted, leaping up in synch with his idle.

"We're with you!" Ruca promised, hands clenched in prayer.

"We're lending you our hopes!" Aki called, eyes shining in his crimson light.

"Yusei! Show him Team 5ds power!" Jack demanded, lurching forward.

_Everyone is depending on me_, he thought, glancing back at their encouragement and pumping fists. Sherry was the only one to be still, just looking at him with all the commanding power her soul had. For a moment, Bruno and Aporia flickered behind her, phantoms, all appealing to him to do that same thing. _Everyone needs me to save him._

"Zone!" he called, turning back to face his masked opponent. The man floated in front of him at a comfortable distance, watching impartially as he worked hard to manipulate the wings. Neo Domino City sprawled out below them, flooded with evacuating citizens and panicked shouts that rang clear even from these heights. Their panic surged through the air straight towards him, overloading him in the currents. "Look around you Zone! Look at this destruction!"

Mothers tugged their wailing children along, pulling meager belongings along behind them while they tried to explain why they had to leave their homes. Lovers clung tightly, their hands long since lost to circulation, abandoning dreams and hopes brought to them by the city that brought them together. Friends lost each other over the surging tides of fear, losing grips and disappearing into the madness. Families wove together tightly, bustled and jumbled by the tight conditions, losing mementos and memories as they were shoved along. "What kind of future will be brought on by this? How will this help anything?"

He was quiet for a moment, just like Bruno when asked the same question. But he had an answer—had given this justification to three other men countless times in a distant world. "Yusei, you know nothing of the destruction the future offers. Momentum lays waste to the world, to everyone ever known, and brings a death to all your precious bonds. Erasing it from existence saves all those lives. One city, completely safe and evacuated, is nothing compared to what will happen."

"You're wrong!" he demanded. "Momentum is the hopes and desires of humanity and you cannot destroy it! Leveling this city will leave nothing but depression and despair—the very thing that corrupted your future!"

"You've been misguided, Yusei," Zone replied. "Just like all those people down there, the root to tragedy, you understand nothing."

Yusei balked at the repeated accusation, but kept forward and steady, glaring into the cracks in Zone's mask. Teeth clenched, he growled, "The misguided one is you Zone. You still had Bruno, Aporia, and Paradox—bonds had not been lost. The only thing that was killed in that world was hope—and you're the one that let it fall into despair!"

"No, that's not true," Zone corrected. "It is as Aporia said, I had hope for this future once. For you, Team 5ds. For the Signers. You became much more powerful than I anticipated after I caused Zero Reverse. You all rose from tragedy and became stronger, as I had once hoped the future would. However, I cannot believe in you any longer. It is you that caused hope to abandon me for a different solution."

"How the hell did we cause that?" Crow spat.

"Though you have all proved capable of overcoming despair together," he replied. "You are too easily swayed when alone." Yusei's breath hitched as a thought began to form in the back of his mind with shapeless, paralyzing dread. "If even you six, with all your hope and might, are fragile when one link is missing, then none of you can survive the future alone."

_To survive the future alone… to distance oneself... to reach from Goodwin's dream...  
_

"So long as we have each other's memories," Sherry called unexpected, whipping her father's card out of her breast pocket and holding it aloft, "we are not alone and we can still fight together! Those are the precious bonds we're fighting for—the ones that surpass even death!"

Tense relief flowed past his lips in a sigh, both grateful for her reminder and worried that he had needed it. "It's just like Aporia, Bruno, and Paradox were to you, Zone! You created this place to give them a brighter future, to bring them hope! But then you used them and tossed them aside for this death!"

Though he couldn't see, he could sense an inkling of irritation in Zone's face, a light throbbing in his own heart at having to accuse someone of spitting on his or her bonds. "You still do not understand, Yusei. Those machines were just an image, not the men behind them. Everything I have done and am still fighting for is for them, and there is nothing I would not do to make their sacrifice worthy. Surely you could understand that much, at least? We share that same drive—the willingness to throw even ourselves away if it meant we could save another."

"I am nothing like you!" he snapped, chasing after the man as he floated through the buildings of the Arc Cradle. That drew the soft, one syllable chuckle from him, nothing like mirth or cruelty, almost ironic in a way. It set his skin crawling to hear the noise he had made at Divine months ago thrown back at him. "Your means are selfish and I will keep fighting for a better future!"

"Then tell me, how did you plan to attach a positive end to Reverse Momentum, Yusei?"

The abrupt accusation unhinged and released everyone from the thick anticipation woven around them, and allowed the words to sink in, and the unlikely conclusion to be drawn. The rider became uncomfortably silent, glaring the truth right back into Zone's mask. Jack was the first to object, shouting at the man, "What are you talking about? Once Yusei defeats you Arc Cradle will shut down!"

Neither duelist, stationary for all it was worth, answered him, refusing to budge. Aki was the first to get it, gasping, "No—it's like what Bruno said. It will stop, but it will not stop falling. It will just collide into the city; the two Momentums won't ever meet. But to reverse the cycle and send it back into the world of speed, we would have to…"

"Send yourself hurtling into it, and let it take you," Sherry finished softly, glancing away from the group. "Just as with the initial Zero Reverse, even the smallest amount of positive Momentum, from Rudger Goodwin, will clash with the negative and overpower it."

"So then Yusei…" Ruca trailed off, gazing up at the silent man in an odd mix of wonder and betrayal.

"Yusei came here with the full intention of dying," Zone's statement was final, and echoed through the transfixed city like gong, "because even in victory, he was going to see to it himself."

"Don't just let this madman say whatever he likes, Yusei!" Jack demanded, hurling he words like stones at his rival. "Prove him wrong!"

Yusei kept his face hidden in the shadow of his visor and had nothing to say.

Zone did. "And is that not selfish Yusei? You would have ventured here alone and died without telling your bonds your intentions, leaving them in confusion and despair. And why? Were you too weak to face them, afraid that they'd be able to change your mind?"

Blue eyes sliced upwards sharply, meeting their counterparts with every small, withering drop of venom he possessed. "I did it to protect them!"

"By destroying your life and bonds, believing that one sacrifice would save the rest? What kind of future were you hoping to build on _that_?"

His own words twisted around and lashed out; hitting him hard and swiftly in the tender areas he never kept exposed. Frown deepening, he listened with a heavy heart to the protesting outrage and encouragement from his friends, demanding he change his mind and that they could work something out together.

_Were those truly the same ideals as Zone?_

"You will find through this duel," Zone continued, almost gently, "that we are not as different as you think."

Hatred and dismay lashed out against it, but that coiling, fermenting dread within urged him to believe. Zone drew his cards, leaving Yusei already struggling before the first blow. With hardly a glance at the monster, Zone announced, "I summon Time Machine Priestess in attack mode!"

The female faded onto the field and regarded him with a glance, taking in the dying shouts for his attention from his friends. His fists were already shaking, and he could have sworn he saw her eyes soften. "If there are no cards on my field," Zone explained as Rua complained, "this can be special summoned, and when summoning a Time Machine Deity, it counts as two releases."

She raised her arms towards the dangling Arc Cradle and hidden moon, vanishing into dust without a prompt, knowing her purpose. "I summon Time Machine Metaeon in attack mode!"

"It's already here?" Crow murmured, dropping his pleas for the dread curling within him. "A level ten monster on the first turn?"

"So long as Zone believes what he does is right," Sherry offered, "he will not be defeated or shaken. And Yusei is challenging every decision he ever made, every sacrifice his friends made for him. There will be no mercy here."

"I'll set one card facedown and end my turn."

With a slight shake of his head, Yusei jarred away the nagging thoughts and focused solely on his opponent and the wind, which had led him to understand and seize countless victories before him. Black, jaded despair met him from all sides, adding to the poison he nursed within, from the anxious city, from his betrayed friends, and from the tired God before him.

But he could not give up. He had found hope in deeper depths of despair before, and he could shed light here as well, so long as he kept faith. The Arc Cradle moaned as it drew closer to Neo Domino's center building in its own search, and what a beautiful light that would be when it found it.

There was a slight shake in his fingers as he drew, something he could pass off as the wind. _Focus. You must defeat Zone for their sakes!_

Taking a deep breath, he centered himself once more, taking care to bury the brooding thought and seal them in his ravenously dark heart before setting eyes on the man that so easily freed them. _The only trap he set before was Zero Machine Ein, so that must be it. He would just play others from his hand. But even then he can only summon one monster per turn, and if I can just wait him out…_

"When the opponent controls a monster, I can special summon Double Delta Warrior from my hand!" he projected his voice loud and clear, so that anyone listening would not hear the uncertain undertones. This strategy would not last long under Zone's eyes, and he knew it would be a continuous race to even come close to denting Zone's life points. "And by discarding two cards from my hand I can special summon Tuner Monster, Big Eater as well!"

The two monsters appeared on the field, eager to defend and offer him the power his faith was lacking. "Furthermore, when there is a tuner on my field, Bolt Hedgehog can be special summoned from the graveyard!"

The little rodent appeared faithfully, always ready to assist him in moving forward with quick plays. "Next, I'll normal summon Debris Dragon to the field, and when this monster is successfully summoned I can revive a monster with 500 attack points or less, with its effects negated. Be revived! Clear Effecter!"

His final monster leapt into action, glaring at the Deity it opposed. Anger temporarily put of the backburner, his friends gathered in awe, exclaiming, "Amazing Yusei! Five monsters in one turn?"

And five would become two: two aces to Zone's one. He had to stay ahead at all costs. There was no room for mistakes or misplays in this duel. "I'll tune level 6 Double Delta Warrior to level 2 Big Eater!"

Mark shining as Yusei asked to borrow his power; Crow stepped forward with a grin, "Alright Yusei! Let's fight together! Darkened squalls become the wings that soar from resolved hope!" Their voices clashed, "Synchro Summon! Soar: Black Feather Dragon!"

Jack's arm began to glow next, as Yusei moved towards tuning the rest of his monsters. "Take my power Yusei! The ruler's heartbeat will now file through here! Take witness to its creation-shaking power! Synchro Summon! My very soul: Red Demon's Dragon!"

The two dragons blasted into existence with crimson and black feathers and flames, roaring warning towards Zone's solitary monster. "Black Feather Dragon cannot attack this turn, due to Big Eater's effect."

"But Red Demon's Dragon destroys all monster that haven't attacked this turn, doesn't it?" Aki wondered. "And Zone's monster will not be destroyed by an effect, so then Crow's monster…"

"Not quite!" Yusei cut in, sliding across the sky, leaving crimson in his trail with each flap of Aporia's wings. "Because Clear Effecter was used as Synchro material, Red Demon's Dragon cannot use its effect."

"Clever," Zone allowed. "But there is still nothing you can do against my monster."

"While your Deity stands alone," he refuted, "it will not defeat our bonds! Clear Effecter allows me to draw a card when it is used in Synchro summoning. I set two cards facedown and end my turn."

_With this in place I can outlast him for one turn. But after that… what will you do, Zone?_

"What is the difference between what you are doing and standing alone, Yusei? You may have those dragons on the field, but you would have gladly continued on without them. We are backed by our memories, yes, and the support of those we hold dear, but in the end, they are just memories. They remain, but we fight alone."

As if emphasizing his words, Time Machine Deity Metaeon faded back into his deck in a shower of golden sparks, passing gently and without pain.

"That's not true!" they all insisted as one, their combined voices all the argument needed. Zone made a noise that might have been a smile, and carried on, "Then let me show you, even together we stand alone. Continuous Trap card open, Zero Machine Ein!"

The infinity loop appeared once more. "With this, I can summon a level 10 or higher monster to the field so long as its attack points become 0. Appear now! Time Machine Deity Razion!"

_The card that destroyed Aporia._

That Kingly face stared haughtily down at him, broadcasting its previous victory and promise of another. His muscles tensed in anticipation of the first attack, fingers already twitching to counter it and reveal his only strategy; to start the race; the true battle. "When Razion battles, all your monster cards and cards in the graveyard are returned to your deck. So battle! Attack Red Demon's Dragon!"

Flames poured out of the monster and gushed towards Jack's ace, setting everyone's teeth on edge. "Trap card open!" Tension visibly ebbed from the group with those three words. "Scrap Iron Scarecrow! This can stop one attack per turn and can be placed again!"

The flimsy metal trap separated the stream as easily as Bruno's Ace monster had, hurtling heat around him and a chill in his throat. Determination kindled in his chest as that goofy smile spread across his blue eyes, lending a tiny glow to all the darkness. He had survived the first turn ahead.

"I see," Zone muttered, eyeing the mechanical savior as it retreated back onto his field. His attention slid over to his hand and he continued, "You intend to wait this out Yusei? But you know that strategy will get you nowhere. Each play you make has more purpose than just winning a duel, and by this you are trying to tell me that biding time will open up an opportunity. I have waited an eternity, travelled through time alone for that chance. And this is it Yusei. After this there will be nothing, either way. With your victory, despair waits, and with mine, hope can blossom once more."

A small growl escaped his target, the only sign of his discomfort about being so easily read yet again. "Even if there is only misery waiting for us in the future we cannot give in! Just sitting around waiting for it to come will accomplish nothing. But I will not despair because I still have the hope that Aporia and Bruno gave me, and the light from my friends and the city we live in! If there is destruction in our future, we will fight to stop it—we will not roll over to you!"

"It does not matter. Willingly or not, this future will be saved by this duel," Zone replied, circling around the centerpiece of Arc Cradle as it steadily fell towards the waiting city. "I will end my turn with a facedown. Now show me your power Yusei, if you have any left to spare!"

"Another facedown?" he muttered, eyes narrowing. _But the only thing that would help him in this situation would be another monster… so… _"Could that allow him to summon more Time Machine Deities?"

Another low chuckle from Zone. "You do not disappoint, do you Yusei? However, I can see through your strategy as well. In anticipation of my second monster, you will summon a third Ace from your friends, knowing your trap will not protect you. You are trying to always stay a monster ahead of me, trying to sway me by showing cluster bonds and wishes. We both know the number of monsters summoned will determine to outcome of this duel, and you know of my ten Time Machine Deities, just as I know of your seven dragons."

"But at this moment," he continued, keeping them all entranced in the calm, calculating method that was so familiar and untouchable. "Your monsters cannot attack me, so you will use them to strengthen your defenses under the argument that keeping love so close will be strong enough to stop certain doom and destruction. And fully knowing that I'll see through that, you will search from another possibility, just as I will search for more to disprove your path."

"So it's a race, then," he finished. "Who can see the farthest and who can understand the most. Whose bonds have the strength to finish on top. Who has the most faith."

"My faith in this path is certain, Zone, as well as in my cherished bonds," Yusei replied. "Yours is as well, although you seem to believe that it is the death of those memories that remain, and not their life."

"You are exceptional even now at hiding your fear, Yusei," he murmured, unbothered by the accusation. The younger duelist glowered in his place.

"I am not afraid of you Zone!"

_Not yet._

That little smirk behind the visor was felt across the sky and glided into his chest, bringing goose bumps to his straining arms. Each casual truth the man uttered, each secret he kept greedily guarded in the recesses of his mind, and each doubtful stain of darkness clashed behind his mask with an intense, dizzying confusion he had never been subjected to before. The soft voices of doubt began to gather around the edges of his vision, tiny lights trying to peer into the areas he preferred to stay in the shadows. But with each millimeter closer they became, he clung tighter and tighter to the darkness, forcing them back with the thoughts of friends and former dreams.

Was this how it felt to be saved?

Teeth setting in a snarl to keep the words hidden, he called, "Draw!"

"Time Machine Deity Razion deals 1000 points of damage for each card drawn," Zone reminded him, as if he could forget the blade that cut Aporia's dwindling life to ribbons. The wings drew up as the great false god attempted to incinerate him from the field, shielding him from the burns but not the gales.

**Yusei: 3000**

**Zone: 4000**

_"Agh!"_ Try as he might, he couldn't stop the short, grunting shout from leaving him as he was sent spinning into the night, vanishing into the streets of the destroyed future. Déjà vu, his tormentor in this fight, plunged him into a world where the flames around him were purple and frozen, where the burning in his mark was the only source of light, and where he would have to sacrifice a friend for the greater good.

_Kiryu... Bruno..._

Wildly, he forced his arms one way, and then another, doing everything in his power to bring the flying machine back under control with absolutely no idea how it operated. _Up! Up!_

_Or was it down?_

"YUSEI!"

He focused on their voice, jerking towards them. Blind faith in their glory saved him and redefined his path, allowing him to blast out of the desolate, dark streets and back towards the man who had tried to trap him there. Only when the wind quieted down and the city's voice swelled was he able to look at the drawn card.

_With this I can…!_

Just another step ahead, towards their uncertain future. "I activate the Speed Spell Angel Baton! This lets me draw two cards and then discard one!"

"So you are planning to summon from the grave, then. Another dragon is coming."

Forcing himself past the vulnerability of being understood, Yusei pressed on, "It's as you said. We've predicted each other. Now all that's left is to determine who can back their goals. So Regene Warrior revives from the grave!"

"There is something wrong about all this…" Aki whispered, touching her claw mark as it began to burn. "Yusei… you feel it too…"

Sherry evaluated her out of the corner of her eyes, watching the uncertainty bloom across her young beautiful face. "So you're not so blind to him after all, Aki."

The psychic jolted out of her focus on the duel and glanced at the other woman, folding her hands together. "What do you mean, blind to him?"

A little out of place chuckle withered on her lips. "I figured the one who loved him would be even more blind to his possibilities than someone like me who hates him."

Putting the duel on the backburner for the sake of defending Yusei, Aki missed as he summoned Junk Synchron and Zone continued to torment him with predictions. "Sherry! You couldn't possibly hate Yusei after all he's done and what he's doing!"

She shrugged, "Of course I do. He and I are too similar to truly see eye-to-eye. I may have let go of my revenge for him, but I have not revoked my ideals. He sees in grays and I see in black and white. The fact of the matter is that I do not see Yusei as your image of perfection or as your savior. I see him as he is: human. Capable of falling. His intentions attract me, but his options repel me."

Her gaze turned towards him as he lit up the sky. "I thought I was the only one to think he might fail. But now I see you doubting too."

Jack and Crow began to seethe at her attitude, but were stopped from retaliation by Aki's sharp words. "I do not doubt Yusei! He will pull through with our help! If I did not know better, I would say that you are still agreeing with Zone!"

The French duelist's arms folded across her chest, hiding the riding suit the man had given her. "I told you already, Aki. He and I are alike, but we like to pretend we're different. Do not misunderstand. I believe that Yusei will win. But this duel was never about the outcome, as you know."

The others paused to dissect her, but the younger woman pressed on. "You know what this feeling is, don't you Sherry? You're connected to the Speed World as well—what's going on?"

She smiled, "I'm glad you're not blind Aki, but not even I can get a clear image of what's happening."

"Then what—?" Her arm shone with sudden crimson light, effectively ending the argument. Turning her back on the woman who had inspired her, she clutched the mark and set her eyes firmly on her man in the sky, shouting, "Use my strength Yusei! Prove Zone's words wrong! Chilling flames engulf the entire world. Pitch-dark flower, set into bloom! Synchro summon! Appear now, Black Rose Dragon!"

Dark magenta petals folded outwards as the deadly beast settled between her companions, thorns whirling around her like whips, teeth barred. She descended just above Yusei's machine, ready to protect him as viciously as her counterpart would. That made three dragons to Zone's two deities.

_Still hope._

"Amazing Yusei! Keep it up!" Rua and Ruca shouted respectively, watching the guards in awe as they swooped down upon their hero.

"What is he planning to do with them though?" Crow wondered. "He can't attack and Zone already knows he'll try and wait it out…"

"He has overwhelming force now!" Jack answered angrily. "There is nothing that can stand in his way!"

"I activate Black Rose Dragon's effect! Black Rose Gale!"

"What?" they shouted.

Interested, Zone wondered, "My monsters cannot be destroyed by effects Yusei. The only things that will be destroyed are on your side of the field. So then your trap…?"

"Ah! Synchro Barrier Force activates!"

Zone's visible eye widened, along with a hitch in his breath. "What?"

Reassured by the conviction, Yusei charged forward, rushing towards the floating shell and beyond it, reaching for the elusive hope in these winds. "That's right! This is the power of our bonds Zone—the power to open up new possibilities! With this, I can stop my card's destruction, and for the number of Synchro Monsters on my field, I can inflict 500 points of damage on you! That's 1500! So take it! Our strength!"

"Yusei!" Aki rejoiced, commanding her dragon. "Black Rose Gale!" Petals blossoming into a threatening fire, the other half of her soul dove towards the threat and struck him head on, forcing him out of orbit.

"That's how it's done! Take this! Nova Stream!" Crow hollered, punching the air with his fists. Black Feather Dragon fell in line closely after its female ally, delivering the crackling blow with no relief. Gaining speed, Zone continued to hurl towards the Arc Cradle, his own momentum working against him.

"We're not done yet!" Jack shouted. "Feel our overwhelming power! Absolute Power Force!"

Bringing up the tail, Red Demon's Dragon gathered flames before it, blasting Zone before he had a chance to recover. Screaming, the man clipped the side of his tallest spire before launching off into the windows of another, vanishing from sight in a shower of concrete and dirty glass.

"Way to go!" Rua screamed.

**Yusel: 3000**

**Zone: 2500**

Hearing the support but unable to acknowledge it, Yusei lifted up cautiously towards the city streets, keeping himself alert for his opponent's reentrance. _Five hundred life points ahead. So what will his strategy be? Will he regain life or destroy it?_

Glancing around at the gray, oppressive, and bleak underbelly of his home, the answer was obvious to him. _He will have seen through Scrap-Iron Scarecrow next turn, but that's all I have to defend myself on the field… _

"Yusei!" Moaning, the church ahead of him gave way as Zone reappeared, armor dented and cracking under the strain from their attack. Sharpening himself, he focused on the chunks of plaster falling away, revealing the corner of a mouth and heavily wrinkled skin.

_Burns from Momentum?_

"It seems I have no choice but to reveal myself to you after all, Yusei," Zone said, a slight smirk coloring his dull words. "Although I had hoped to correct you without having to destroy you first."

_Destroy me…?_

"I am not afraid of you Zone! There is no reason to hide your face from me!" he denied, keeping pace as the man zoomed out into the open once more, coming to a halt just before his group. Sherry and Jack were the only ones to stand their ground at his approach, out of pride and instinct. The others balked at the looming, cracked God and couldn't help but take a few steps away, anticipating an attack.

"It seems you still do not understand after all Yusei," he muttered as the duelists maneuvered protectively in front of his friends, shielding them with his monsters and Aporia's hostile wings. "What Aporia and Antinomy tried to prepare you for was for nothing."

The wind continued to chip at the crumbling mask, revealing more viciously scarred skin and a thin path of yellow going up the side of his face…

Aki's breath hitched as Yusei's heart stopped, the dreadful feeling of something wrong suddenly making all the sense in the world to them. Sherry looked away when her brown eyes sliced towards her, begging and pleading to steal the truth away with her lies. She said nothing.

Wide eyes narrowing, Yusei poured every ounce of observation he had into those last few inches of Zone's hidden face, searching every rivet and wrinkle for a dissimilarity, for a reason to make his heart beat once more…

The last section fell away, and that perfectly matching sapphire eye came into play. Once black, now gray, bangs hung limply around his face, framing the security mark that travelled down his eye like a tear. What had appeared to be a smirk was now a smile under the bright, gentle light in his eyes, reflected in Yusei's without any sense of meaning, right or wrong, or any semblance of reality at all.

"Yusei."

He stared down his own face, aged and weathered, intent on destroying everything he once loved, the eyes that had killed his own bonds. His heart finally stopped.

Into the silence that so eagerly clung to them, that set their wildest fears and deepest nightmares into the charged air, Zone shed light and truth that was the ultimate damnation to any hope they had left. "My name is Zone. But I was once Fudo Yusei."

_The eye that watched our families die in Zero Reverse. The eye that watched the Dark Signers rip loved ones apart. The eye that watched his friends suffer and die. The eye of a killer._

_My eyes._

* * *

**AN UPDATE A DAY (or so) UNTIL THE NEW EPISODE AIRS. Make sure to keep checking, they'll be quick!**

Sorry it took so long but I really needed to know Zone's cards for any semblance of plot in this little tale... which probably will extend beyond the series a little in the end.

So thanks for reading and please review!  
~AxJfan


	7. You'll find

**Well, as I said in the description:**

**SPOILERS TO 145 + ahead!**

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Yugioh 5ds.**

**So I have finally gotten hold of the entire duel of Yusei vs Zone and am rather pleased with the opportunities it leaves. BIG thanks to CFG101 for that (AKA CAP) and the updates will come swiftly. I've already written everything but the duels!**

**AN UPDATE A DAY (or so) UNTIL THE NEW EPISODE AIRS. Make sure to keep checking, they'll be quick!  
**

* * *

**You'll find…**

**3rd Person POV**

"Impossible!"

It was the first word to leave the spectator's lips, coming from the man who was always first. Jack Atlas, the King of Riding Duels, and Yusei's eternal rival, his closest friend. "Do you expect us to believe such _lies_? Yusei would never abandon hope!"

_"I… I don't think I can do this, Jack."_ Fists trembling, he refused to look up once the sentence was out of him, once he had finally released the thought hounding him and consuming him, afraid to look at how he'd hold the insecurity in his own shaking hands. Jack grabbed him by the throat, accused him of being dead.

Blue eyes heavy, staring off into those distant possibilities he rarely ever shared, _"We all lose people differently."_

Their approach barely seemed to register as his thoughts wove and spun around him, nearly tangible in the soft sunlit breeze blowing over the channel below them. The steel bridge reflected shards of rays across his face, bringing to life the downturned lips born from the pressures engulfing him, the battles he would always choose to fight alone. _"This is my battle, Jack."_

Quelling the unease with a threatening shake of his fist, but no words left for attack, Jack settled back into the folds of shock, picking through the weeds that had always clogged Yusei's heart, the start of a growing infestation.

Crow revived next, jolting back from the blank void of shock he had tumbled into with vigor, "Did you even try, Ghost? At least with Jack, you nailed his arrogance! Yusei doesn't fight like this—he's never fought like you! Besides, you've got his face wrong!"

_"Let go of me!"_ He barely heard the words over the stinging in his hand. Shock kept his usually silver tongue quiet for a moment, his matching eyes uncomprehending as they watched his form continue to stalk away without a hint of regret for the unwarranted strike. Were the WRGP and Ghost truly too much for him to handle in his silence? Why wouldn't he just _talk_ to them? Didn't he understand he was just as precious to them as they were to him?

_"How could they ever accept a piece of shit like me as their friend?"_ Crow backed down, staring at Yusei's stiff form, waiting for the reassurance that couldn't possibly come. With so much hatred stored for him, was it really any surprise that he became lost in it?

"To survive the future alone…" Aki stood in uncertainty, observing the mirrored angles of his jaw, the weary intelligence in dark sapphire irises, and the outwardly justified way he held himself. As Crow had pointed out, there were stark differences to be found as well, other than the graying in his hair and the Yliaster cloak he bore. The left portion of his face (coincidentally, the half already marked by society) was obscured in a vicious burn scar, leaving only the hard light of his eye distinguishable.

White teeth snaked out a bit deep into her soft lips as she recognized there would be no point to add such features if this was just a fake—a machine. So then this was just the man who had lost everything, who had clung to hope until it was physically impossible to do so…

_"I don't know where these feelings will lead," _he admitted as he stared down at her. Enraptured, she clung onto every syllable that escaped his mouth, desperate to know how to deal with the loss of Divine, and how he would deal with the loss of Kiryu. _"But since we were friends in the past, I'll carry that burden and keep moving forward."_

But to keep moving forward endlessly, without the faces he strove for, without the bonds that kept him from falling into himself, from shutting himself out from the world…

Miles away on a separate plane of existence entirely, Martha stared out the tinted windows of the bus, seeing Zone's face splashed across the wide screens, listening to the MC try and splutter out an explanation for the paradox unfolding.

_"Right now, you've got the doors to your heart closed up. And the ones who can open it are your friends, aren't they? Being with your friends will knock on that door. And once your hear it, it will open up."_

Hadn't she been the one to tell him that? If he was with his friends, they could pry him from himself, from the black, never-ending hole of his mind, and lead him out into greater sights, into the supernova he was before he fell. And without them… without anyone to save him…

_"I was born after the certain death of this city, and I carried the burden of its destruction."_ It was a shout without a raised voice, and Harold took care to listen. "_But I refuse to give up and leave everything to fate! That's why I'm prepared to gladly give my life for this! That's why I'll never give up! I'll use whatever power I have until there's nothing left to give!"_

Brave and Dragon stood laboring beside him, panting over the exhaustion they had overcome creating the BiFrost Bridge, sharing his thoughts and fears with their rune eyes shining. Zone's goal had been as mad as Yusei's, as impossible and daring and risky only to himself, but with the fate of the world breaking and bending his back. And he had brought them together to create something impossible, to bring a legend to life, just as Zone had managed to travel through time with his three companions.

Sherry, who had approached Yusei to betray Zone, glanced back at Aki slowly, having come to the same nasty conclusion much earlier. The absolute silence their leader wore like a heavy cloak told them he knew the same.

"You asked me to defeat Yusei," Sherry repeated to herself, the words lost under the waist-deep denial that the five Signers were spouting. "But… you are…"

_"You shouldn't take such unnecessary risks."_ She blinked, the true ending looming closer on her horizons, the true purpose Zone had crafted for this fight, for this confrontation, and for her involvement.

There was no question. Zone was Yusei.

Yes, they could see it.

* * *

**Third Person POV**

**Arc Cradle  
**

A face was all it took.

_Although many would describe him as quiet, it was a rare ability to steal the words away from him, even scarcer to snatch a thought. _

Encompassed in the fickle notion of time, his eyes remained wide and locked on what he could not be seeing, and his body which was always moving, calculating, or at the very least breathing shut down, becoming so still it was easy to believe in the prophecy that sent his friends scuttling after him in the first place.

Stillness engulfed him, and all that was left was silence.

"Zone…" his companions muttered, falling in line beside him with mouths open in horror. The once loud, assured, and arrogant voice was just a whisper, "You wanted me to kill Yusei… but…"

The hissing of Zone's machines filled the silence fittingly, broken only by the soft tap of his mask's pieces hitting the buildings.

"Impossible. Do you expect us to believe such _lies_? Yusei would never abandon hope!"

"Did you even try, Ghost? At least with Jack, you nailed his arrogance! Yusei doesn't fight like this—he's never fought like you! Besides, you've got his face wrong!"

"To survive the future alone..."

"You asked me to defeat Yusei. But… you are…"

"The Momentum Reactor."

Admittedly, they jumped when he began talking again, though he still did not move an inch. Drained and exhausted orbs gazed blankly at Zone with little will to continue, the words that had been stolen were dropped in the air. The elder nodded, his mechanical fingers dangling loosely at his sides in a defiant form of relaxation.

A strange little titter escaped his lips at that, binding his companions in confused silence once more. "So even then I bare that curse." His gloved fingers lingered on the golden mark.

_Although many would say he showed little emotion when he did speak, it was easy to tell when he was talking through his mask or his heart. _

He sounded wrong: defeated although the duel had hardly started, like a man staring into the eyes of the reaper without the will to live. The vigor and grit that had occupied his will had dissipated like a fine morning mist under the hot truth of the sun, leaving a listless, robotic recording left to spell out the facts. Devoid of emotion, his lips continued to move.

"Antinomy… Bruno… this is what you meant," he muttered, gazing at the aged version of himself without really seeing.

_Although many would admire his confidence, infallibly, and apparent perfection, anyone who spent five minutes in his company could tell he was struggling, and very few knew it was with himself._

"Yusei, you don't—!" fear chocked off the rest of his sentence as Crow realized the pointlessness of a question that had been answered countless times. Gray eyes flicked around the room as if expecting a swaying bridge to appear below their feet and a monstrous spider to tame Momentum into a web.

_I wonder… do we understand Yusei?_

The nagging thought that had plagued him ever since that hellish night reared its ugly head once more as he stared at the version of his friend that would kill for a lie and the one who had already let him. Aki's earlier comment that something had felt weird surfaced along with it, and now he found himself facing the answer to both questions and liking neither of them.

"Yusei you idiot!" Jack snarled when it became apparent that Crow was at a loss. The blonde would have stormed into the sky had Aki's arm not held him back, but his words cut as hard as any blow could. "You seriously can't be moronic enough to believe that you would try and destroy this city! Have some respect for yourself! As your rival and friend, I think my judgment is sound on this! You are not this man!"

"No Jack," he replied hollowly, "I'm not."

The statement brought no relief, only a lingering feeling of the despair that Aporia had tried so hard to destroy for Zone. Yet Jack paid this no heed, pressing, "Then why the hell are you just standing there?"

"Because he will be," Sherry answered, look turning sour as she sized up the man she had wanted on her team. Yusei returned the contact with no denials, adding, "Ah, I can see it."

"You can—?" the blonde's mouth worked furiously to keep up with the rage surging through him, to no avail. Yusei took the moment of frustration to clarify, "We would have fought against them, the Machine Emperors."

The orbs that had been locked firmly onto the present shifted towards a destructive future, hazy with the feelings he knew were to come. "Accel Synchro would be a dueling weapon, but Clear Mind's power would become abused and filled with hatred… connected so closely to Momentum's Light…"

Recognition leapt across his eyes like a comet, brief and startling. "That's why Placido said if I used Accel Synchro I would cause a second Zero Reverse. He wasn't lying."

Zone nodded. "The pollution of Accel Synchro is what caused the Momentum Reactor to overload and the abuse from the Speed World."

"And to survive the future alone… everyone must have died in that chaos, and if Momentum failed to kill me twice before, why would it succeed a third time?" He barely seemed to register Zone's voice, his attention fully towards the future playing out before his glazed eyes. "They are my hope, my life, and without them…"

"Coming here, I knew the risks," he switched abruptly, sight refocusing on the image in time's warped mirror. "But I did not know what I would do if I lost any of my friends, which is why I wanted to come alone."

His blue eyes skirted to the side and one hand came up to his chest, shaking before closing to a fist. "But I failed to keep them safe. Bruno was killed because I wasn't prepared for this, because he knew I was too weak to defeat you as I am."

_"In the short time I stayed with you, you showed me again and again that you could overcome the wall of impossibilities."_

Bruno, resting on his knees, eyes closed towards the death that would finally reach him, a single shot, a crimson rider, an offered hand, a fate of destruction, a world of speed, a warping in time, a chance to fix the past, a restoration of memory, a prolonging of life…

Bruno, beaten on the ground, held up by the same hand, a single goal, a crimson team, evolution, destruction of despair, clustering wishes, a changing of hands and ideals, a beautiful world of speed, a passing of time, hopes to change the future, a creation of memories, a dwindling life…

_"And at the moment my memories returned, I decided that I would believe in your possibilities, Yusei."_

A D-Wheel breaks into the city, a King is dethroned, criminals united, a witch saved, friends are lost, families broken, a man dies in his arms, he tastes death twice, but overcomes his human limits, a meeting with a ghost, a revival of hope, transitions of love, lives once lost returned, darkness held at bay, two cities untied…

A tournament looms, a new engine designed, Clear Mind, the approval of another God, defeat of a Ghost, of an emperor, binding bonds across the world, a message spread clear, a plan foiled, a decision to make, an outstretched hand, left empty…

"_I know you can do it. If it's you, Yusei, I'm sure you can surpass the limits of your own being."_

To face the future alone, to be the last survivor of mankind, to search for an answer, to abandon hope only after it had been long since dead, to sacrifice humanity for Godhood, to break the boundaries of time, to exceed the limitations of humanity, to sacrifice the part of him that still lived for a better world… to become a God…

To face the future together, to be the martyr for mankind, to search for reasons, to never abandon hope even after it's long since died, to offer his life for humanity, to push the boundaries of faith, to exceed the limitations of a God, and to sacrifice the part of him that never lived for a better world…

_"That's why I started this duel—so I could guide you towards a new power!"_

Because Accel Synchro was so much more than light, it was a truth impossible to ignore. It had first brought him before Zone, to be granted his own card, to 'even the odds', and to allow this disaster to slip into this time stream.

"Everything he was trying to tell me… it's you. I… when he died…" Trembling, brimming over his capacity with movement, his arms slashed with the harsh words from his mouth, "I hated you for forcing him through that, for creating a situation where I would have to defeat him to get closer to you, for making another Dark Signer war out of this. But I was only truly angry at myself for watching him die."

Bitter, he muttered, "It seems I was at least justified in my anger."

Zone stayed quiet, observing his tale spill from the young mouth before him, inhibitions destroyed by a simple cracked mask. "So then, in your time, at the least I would want vengeance, but I could no longer use the Accel Synchro or any other kind in fear of triggering another explosion. So I created the weapon that saved Bruno."

"And then I found him, and later Paradox and Aporia, it gave me a sense of direction and people to protect. So I worked towards prolonging our lives and trying to save what was already gone."

_I don't have the power to save anyone._

"There was no hope for the future, but the truth was they needed lies, I needed lies. So I turned towards Destiny that I did not believe in and used the power of the Speed World to split from that time. The Speed world needed to be breached if I were to bring about the Arc Cradle, and it needed to be controlled."

"Then!" Sherry interrupted, overtaking the suction of his heedless tale with her brimming enlightenment. "My father's card! That's why it was created. Z-One controls the Speed World, which is how Bruno and you escaped from it when we separated."

Making another appearance, the card flashed and seemed to draw in the world as she held it before them, revealing the thick patterns the wind made around them. Remnants of the Arc Cradle's voyage through the rotting universe gathered around its edges, a slight shimmer in the air.

"And I was taught the Accel Synchro to provide enough power so that it could cross over into reality," Yusei followed up. When their eyes met briefly over the distance, she saw that same grimy light reflected in him. A birthing of the dangerous bright knives in Zone's.

"Fudo Yusei," she repeated suddenly, fully understanding the meaning of her own words. "You will die when you board the Arc Cradle."

The shapeless, dark mass that had paid rent within such a dark heart roamed free now, sliding through the concrete wind, clinging to their cheeks, whispering bitter nothings into their straining ears.

"That is not why Antinomy chose to die," Zone said finally, sensing an end. "He always knew of who I used to be, and he still foolishly carried hope for that man. No, Yusei, he died because he knew that you already succumbed to me because of how you were."

"How I was…?" he repeated, still and suffocating under the looming threat of his own future. "Bruno died because I…"

Zone nodded curtly, just as he would have done, following with, "Yusei, I will prove to you that this is the only way to save this world! I'll open your eyes once more if that's what it takes! Draw!"

Time Machine Deity Razion vanished back into the folds of Zone's deck, sparing Yusei one last, sympathetically condescending quirk of the eyebrow. He just stared.

"Watch carefully," Zone advised, "and you'll see why your methods will fail. I was you, and I can predict every move you'll make. I understand your naïve way, having once followed that road myself. So watch and try to understand: I destroy the continuous trap Zero Machine Ain to activate Infinite Machine Ain Soph."

A triple ringed golden portal appeared, giving off a faint alabaster glow. "This allows me to summon as many Time Machine Deities as I have in my hand!"

Yusei flickered back into focus across his wide blue eyes, feeling the dread of being out foxed creep in. "What?"

"So appear now, Time Machine Deity Tzaphion, Zadion, and Camion!"

The three flashed into existence calmly, as if they had always been there, but were just waiting for the right moment to reveal themselves. Gleaming and grinning, they stared down the three Signer Dragons that glared against them, reveling ins godly silence while the beasts growled and roared in warning against them.

_Three on three. He's already summoned two. Halfway through the ten._

"Tzaphion attacks Black Feather Dragon!"

_No!_

"I activate Scrap-Iron Scarecrow!" Yusei shouted, parting the vicious stream of light from the deity's assault. Zone's lips twitched upwards slightly, a telltale sign of Yusei's strategy gone right.

"I knew you would stop my first attack, but what matters is the next. Zadion attack Black Rose Dragon!"

Helpless to stop it, he watched the torrents of harsh wind and debris smash against Aki's dragon, who stood strong and brave under the powerful onslaught, breaking it with a firm flap of her magenta petals.

"When Zadion battles," Zone elaborated, "it is not destroyed and battle damage becomes zero. Furthermore, it returns my life points to 4000."

_"What?"_ he hollered, watching all the damage they had worked hard for vanish under one monster's simple effect. A bead of sweat trailed down his brow as he stared down the last monster left to attack, realizing for the first time how desperate this battle had to become for a victory.

"Now do you see how pointless it is to fight against me? Camion attacks Red Demon's Dragon!"

Letting loose a torrent of fire and a monumental roar, Jack's ace crushed the attack before it made contact, only for the ash to swirl around and engulf him, soon swallowing the other two dragons whole as well. "Camion's effect returns each of your monsters back to the extra deck and inflicts 500 points for each."

A gasp left him as his friend's wishes exploded, blindsiding him and knocking him down into the approaching city. Screaming as he went, the wings twitched and spiraled out of control, swinging him from one street to another until he finally looped around the Security Building and took back to the sky, panting heavily.

Yusei: 1500

Zone: 4000

Brow damp from sweat, muscles shaking, resolve uprooted, he drew a card. His eyes widened. _With this I can…!_

Shifting his attention back towards Zone, he took in the features he saw each morning in the mirror, focused on those bright, sapphire eyes. The eyes of a murderer. The eyes of a hero. His eyes.

No.

Never.

"Zone!" he shouted, banking all his anger on the word, spitting it, cursing it. "I do not believe you! I am not like you and never will be! I'll prove it to you in this duel!"

"You cannot change the past, Yusei, isn't that what you told the Dark Signers? It's our futures that we shape, and I am what has been created. You are my past, thus I am inevitably your future."

He bit into deep into his lip, keeping clarity with the ache in his body, the blank void of his mind. "I won't believe that! I'll set one card face down and end."

Zone's visible eye narrowed. "Is that all you have left to do? Now you have no cards in your hand."

Those watching wondered the same thing. "Yusei…"

It was the last thing he was willing to hear from them, his name, whispered so softly and with concern, poisoned with the taint of another, with a reflection of himself, with a _lie_…

Veins popping and knuckles white, he stared down the shared face of his enemy, expression quickly morphing into a flash of hatred, something that had only appeared for a brief second a year ago, covered by darkness, revealed by Momentum's light.

"I may have none at this point, but I'm willing to bet on this card. You will only have one yourself, _Zone._"

"Very well," he whispered, though his tone remained unchanged. "You leave me no choice but to crush you." Tzaphion, Zadion, and Camion vanished with his words and the draw of his new card. "Tzaphion's effect activates. I can draw until I have five cards in my hand."

Glare darkening; Yusei watched his last glimmer of hope for Zone failing to draw a monster snuff out. But he had been hoping on this, willing to bet his life on this…

"Trap card open!" Caught off guard, Zone allowed a gasp to escape in place of his next summon, surprise fleeting on his burned face. "Insightful Cards of Reversal!"

"A trap before any moves are made?" he wondered. "Then you're going to…?"

"If my opponent is granted an extra draw on their turn, I can draw the amount of cards equal to those in your hand, making mine five as well!"

Slicing the five cards from the top of his deck, aware of each passing second, he declared, "I drew Scouting Warrior, which can be summoned on my field when drawn!"

The lithe monster appeared, out of turn, out of place, right in strategy, and stared down the man on the other end of the sky. "Also, Steam Synchron can be special summoned whenever another monster is, regardless of the turn. Furthermore, its second ability activates, which allows me to Synchro Summon during my opponent's turn!"

Appearing only to dissolve into thick green rings, the tuner took to the ceiling of the Arc Cradle, lighting a path for its partner. Ruca started as her arm began to ache, clinging to the crimson glow with all the strength her frail heart had. Folding her arms in silent, begging prayer, she shouted, "The light of justice will become a door that connects life. Synchro Summon! Shine, Ancient Fairy Dragon!"

Then softly, to herself, "_Please protect him._"

She came without a sound, bathing the warring Signer in her otherworldly light, wrapping her thin tail behind him and her claws before him in defense mode. He glanced into her wise eyes, and found her stare too hard to meet, looking instead towards Zone, the future he would not accept.

"Another dragon?" Zone muttered. "You haven't learned yet, Yusei? These bonds will do you no good—these bonds die in the future!"

He knew it—had said it—believed it—but to hear said, to hear it shouted at him without a raised voice, to hear it as a _fact_ and not a possibility… Chest seizing, he found he could not even look at Zone without seeing their faces, without gazing into their eyes and searching fruitlessly for life in death's grasp. "I won't let that happen!" he hollered. "I will defeat you and protect them!"

"Don't you understand?" Zone replied. "You can't protect them! They will die, have died, and there is nothing that anyone can do to change that now. That's why I am here Yusei. Everyone dies in the future! I'm here to stop that before it happens! The only way you can protect them is to let this city fall! Even then, they must leave the Arc Cradle, or they will perish within it regardless!"

His breath hitched.

"Yusei I am not trying to destroy you," Zone continued. "I am trying to save you!"

Sherry stepped back, tightening her grip on the card in her pocket, praying to anyone watching that her warning would be heard. Her glare on the back of his spiky haired-head sharpened when he failed to make a sound, just stared into his own words and ideals and they continued to turn around and hit him, break him, send him hurtling into doubt.

"I do not wish for them to die again," Zone admitted, "but they have chosen their fate by following you, just as they did with me. They will follow you into death. I activate Crown of the Empress from my hand, which allows me to draw two cards."

His eyes widened. Zone had even anticipated his card play, letting himself stay ahead with his hand and monsters alike. There was no chance he did not have a Deity now.

"Now I'll special summon Time Machine Deity Michion, Hanion, Raphion, Gabrion, and Sandaion from my hand!"

Five Gods. All he had left in one turn.

They surrounded him, blocking escape from all side, mocked him with their silent expressions, and their age-old disdain. Ancient Fairy Dragon pulled into tighter around him, trying to protect him as the other half of her soul wished, but she was useless against such an onslaught, against the heavens, and against the gods.

"Yusei! This is the path you have chosen, and it will lead to nowhere but my future! You'll find that it is both fate and fact, and you cannot escape!"

Utterly defeated, he could do nothing but jerk from one face to another, seeing the destruction he had created in each grin, and hearing the screams of the city as his defeat loomed closer on the horizon. They all knew it now, whether they believed or balked in denial.

Fudo Yusei must die.

_Although many would claim his bonds were his weakness, they would find that only strength lied in his belief in them, and the only true enemy he ever had was himself._

* * *

**AN UPDATE A DAY (or so) UNTIL THE NEW EPISODE AIRS. Make sure to keep checking, they'll be quick!**

**FOR THOSE HAVING PROBLEMS EDITTING THEIR STORIES**

Fanfiction has been showing "Error Type 2" for a lot of authors. If you want to get around that, go to that error page, and in the URL change 'property' to 'content' and you can edit like normal. Hope that helps people!**  
**

Oh college and your many ways to make me procrastinate...

Sorry guys.

**But** did you all like the little italic bits about Yusei's character? I liked how they fit in, but wasn't sure if it drew the reader out of the story too much...

Thanks for reading and please review,

~AxJfan


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